Shadowed Past
by NKGenesis
Summary: Rei's a fugitive wanted with a bounty on his head. One day it nearly goes down, when a stranger saves him. The price of saving him is, to make Rei his servant? YAOI. KaiXRei plus various others.
1. This is how they met

Hello thanks for clicking this little ficcy. It's my first attempt though there will be others.

Names: I've mixed the names from the jap and english, so I used the name I like better. Like for one character I'll be using the original jap name and for another i'm using the english one. Just so you know.

**Disclaimer: **Anyway I don't own beyblades. If I did then it wouldn't be a shounen manga.

Good reviews would be used as fuel to continuing, flames would be used to burn evidence.

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Chapter one: Blackmailed Fugitive.

Rei was running as fast as his legs can go.

"Shit how much longer are they gonna follow me. Thought they had given up by now".

He took a sharp turn, in hopes to slow down his pursuers by a little. He knew he had to take a different route if he was to completely lose them. He took another turn and another and increased his speed until he lost sight of them at a corner, he wasn't home free just yet, one more turn and he can go home- where ever that was. Just one corner left, he turned and he thought that was it, the pursuers lost in the labyrinth of the back streets of the village and he was free, the least thing he expected was to bump into someone, knocking him and the person to the floor, hitting into some wooden boards, causing them to fall and making enough noise for the chasers come to investigate.

"Damn, damn, damn. Can't let them find me. Hey, what happened to that thing I hit?" Rei said to himself.

"He's standing right behind you waiting for an explanation as to why he was pushed over" came a chilly voice that sent shivers down Rei's spine.

Rei looked up hesitantly, and was paralysed with fear as he was glared down by red crimson eyes, boy did those look mad.

"Hey, he's over here!"

"No, they're coming." Rei was in big trouble, in a limbo between a scary guy and being captured. He tried to get away but the looming figure got in his way. "Hey, move it"

"And why would I do that? You still haven't given me an answer yet" the stranger inquired.

"I don't have time for this, let me go!" Rei needed to get away, and fast. He didn't want to go back to where he was before, he became desperate as tears began to swell in his now slitted golden eyes and he made another run for it. His pursuers appeared from the corner. "No! They can't take me no don't let them get me!" He pleaded.

"Tsk"

Rei felt his body being pushed gently to a wall, a cloak surrounded his body and the stranger that he had been so rude to before was covering him from the chasers.

"Hey kid have you seen a boy run pass here, he has long black hair, grey eyes that can turn into a yellow colour and wearing white and black clothing." One of the pursuers asked.

"Can't say I have, why is there a reason you are chasing him?" the stranger asked.

"He is wanted by the high court with a heavy bounty on his head, further information is utmost secret."

"Shit he's gonna hand me right to them" Rei hissed at himself quietly.

All the stranger heard was 'wanted by the high court' and he had set his mind up.

"No I haven't seen such a person here maybe you're better off looking in another direction." He said pointing at the opposite direction. Rei was sure that the stranger was going to give him to the pursuers that he had to go back. The chasers left in the direction the stranger had pointed; they didn't bother to look back.

"What idiots, taking a random person's advice, that's going to led them off a cliff one day." the stranger said still pinning Rei to the wall with his back.

"Why did you do that, you could have handed me to them and taken the reward money." Rei asked, he was curious as to why the stranger he had been so rude to would help him now.

"I have money, getting more isn't as fun as to knowing why this little boy here was being chased by people from the high court."

"That is none of your business."

"But I just saved you from them and who knows what they were going to do you. Maybe I should call them back, if this child isn't behaving and grateful for what I just did."

"Ok, you've made your point. What do you want from me now?."

"What makes you think I want something from you?"

"You don't seem to be the type of person to do things out of kindness"

"Ouch. Well you not going to be the type to spill your guts out are you, so I have a proposition for you."

"What is it?"

"You be my personal servant from now on, or at least till I get bored with you."

"What?!" Rei tried to move, but was crushed by the stranger, who didn't intend to let him go just yet.

"You heard me or be sent to the high courts' ruling. I heard they haven't been too pleased since their son disappeared."

Rei twitched at this statement, realising he nothing left to lose, he may as well let this person to take care of him a while even if it meant that he was someone's servant. "Fine, then I'll work for you."

"Good choice now I won't have to feed you to my pets. But first let me see your face." The stranger moved slightly, so Rei could turn around to face him, but could make any other movement. He took his time to look at his new employee. He started from the top his head, jet black hair, messy spikes came from his head much like his own then it was woven into a long plait that reached his ankles, bangs would have covered his large grey eyes if it weren't for the bandana he had. His skin was fair but slightly tanned and his complexion was clear. He had a slight feminine look to him, but handsome all the same. Around this time Rei was getting agitated and uncomfortable, his eyes turned gold and slitted, it made the stranger gasp in surprise and backed from Rei, but it still wasn't enough for him to run.

"How? How did you do that?" He questioned.

"It comes naturally ok, it happens when I get uncomfortable or mad or stressed or whatever." Rei replied, hoping that enough to fend the stranger off.

"Hmmm, intriguing Tala would have a lot of fun with you."

"What? 'A lot of fun?'" Rei repeated, 'What I gotten myself into' he thought to himself.

"You seem to be in good form, I'm sure the others would take good care of you"

"You mean there's more. Who else have you blackmailed?"

"You will not speak to your master that way, servant. You will address me as Master Kai from now on."

"You gotta be kidding. I'm not gonna call you anything that sounds so pompous"

"Yeah I was, I hate being called that. Just call me Kai. Being called by my last name makes me twitch."

'Same here buddy' Rei thought.

"What about yours? What's your name do you even have a name?"

"Yeah I do. It's Rei, but you probably won't remember that."

'This Kai is strange. I would have thought he was serious with the 'Master Kai' thing, wonder why he doesn't like being called by his last name does it sound weird or did he not like his family to sever ties with the family name. When I look at him, he's different then other people that I meet, his hair is strange, two types of blue and the top part is all spiked up, I wonder if that he's way of rebelling, that cloak he's wearing looks nicely made, a fire phoenix. He has a good face too, but those blue triangles... Oh shit'

"You're a noble?!" Rei yelled.

"What the...? Not so loud. How the hell did you know?" Kai was shocked that Rei knew that he was from a noble clan.

"Those marks on your face! They're the marks on the face of nobles from the Hiwatari Clan. Why are you, a noble, here in Tora-nekoi like this, you said you had money, but there was no mention you had a fountain of it. And that cloak you're wearing, it has the symbol of the Red phoenix embroidered on it, you're the grandson of the current Clan leader." Rei blabbered.

"Good to know that you are well informed, but you need to be updated. These second marks on my face shows that I have striped of my power and banished from Tori-fushicho, I'm living here because my grandfather caused me a lot of trouble in the past and this the only place where I can start with a clean slate."

"You also said that there were others here too"

"Some of my friends came with me after they found out what had happened. They were originally my personal bodyguards but we tore down that wall after a while."

"Why were you banished?" asked Rei, now that he started asking questions it was hard to stop.

"**That** is none of your business" Kai snapped back. Rei was taken aback by this and grew weary of trying to know more of his boss. "We at my place now, Tala should help you get adjusted to living here."

Rei was utterly speechless at the place Kai had called home. It was twice; no possibly three maybe even more times bigger than the houses in the streets, it was an extravagant traditional home to the people of Tora-nekoi, only it was as big as a mansion (think of a Chinese castle only smaller) and it looked like it could hold up to 20 people at least. He was shocked that such a house existed in a small town like this.

"What are you waiting for, come on in and don't look too shocked, I don't want people to think I hired someone retarded", Kai said, opening the gates to his beautiful home. 'Though it does seem a little cute' he thought.

"But your house..." Rei was still in shock. He did come in when Kai told him so. The inside looked as pretty as it did outside, it was well maintained, with a small garden (well compared to the house it looked small), a koi pond, leaves fluttered in the wind but there was no sight of a tree anywhere, one flew by Rei and looked puzzled as to why these leaves were here. Kai noticed and answered the unasked question.

"They came from the trees from the inner garden"

"Inner garden? There's an inner garden as well?"

"I told you not to look so shocked or you would get teased days on end."

"I'll try my best"

Rei didn't know how much shit he was really in.

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I hope you had fun reading such a long chapter, please continue to read the next chapters and review, so I know to continue. Sankyou 3. Seeya next time.


	2. The Introduction of Tala

Rei woke up in the chambers that Kai had told him to stay in

Rei woke up in the chambers that Kai had told him to stay in. The moment Kai had led him to his room he wasn't allowed outside till Kai said so, whenever that is. It was passed midday when he was taken here and locked up in the room. He took another look around the room and took in a little more of his surroundings.

It seemed as a normal traditional room with the stone flooring, simple structure and wooden doors and windows with interesting designs, except it was freaking huge! The bed he slept in was big too; it looked like it could hold up to 3 people with room to spare. Kai said it was a spare room but how many rooms were there exactly (even I don't know heh) .Ignoring what Kai had told him, he opened the door and wandered around. It didn't seem anyone else was awake, so he moved silently down the halls. He wasn't sure how many people lived here and wasn't curious to find out. He continued walking until he saw the inner garden come in view around the corner and gasped in amazement.

Many trees were planted in the garden and were in full bloom the flowers were so beautiful, Rei had to see them for himself. He climbed up the nearest tree to look at them more closely and they were even more beautiful up close. Small and dainty it's petals is like that of a rose and a faint pink in colour. There were other trees the same type but with different colours; pale yellow, pale blue, pale purple, pale orange (pastille colours) and one without any colour.

"Well hello there, kitten," came a voice from behind him. Rei was paying too much attention to flowers that he didn't notice the figure that stuck up to the tree he was sitting in. Rei looked at the boy; he had red hair that was spiked up with two thin bangs falling on his face, had cool blue eyes that sparkled like electricity, he was tall and slender and a cheerful smile upon his face. Rei slid further down the tree branch, away from this new stranger, in hopes that he would mould into the tree.

"Stop that Tala you're scaring him." Kai said coming from the other side of the inner garden. "I thought I told you to stay in your room till I say so" he said looking up at Rei. Rei shuffled on the tree branch.

"Now who's scaring him" said the one called Tala, he turned his head back in the direction to Rei. "Hey, why don't you come down from the tree and introduce ourselves properly"

Rei was reluctant to do so at first, looking at that kind smile, still he jumped from the tree and landed gracefully on his feet, which surprised Kai and Tala. Rei came up to Tala cautiously, but greeted him friendly all the same.

"H-hi, I'm Rei, nice to meet you." Rei held his hand out and it was taken by Tala.

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Tala"

'Funny, he wasn't this shy yesterday.' Kai thought to himself. "Hey, come here I have something for you to do" he called out.

"Till next time, Kitten" Tala said waving.

Kai walked into the house with Rei following him.

"So what was that about?" He asked.

"What was what?" was the reply.

"Just then with Tala, never thought you were such a good actor, acting shy around him like that"

"It wasn't an act, there something different about him then most people"

"Like what?"

"His smile."

Kai stopped and turned around to look at Rei, with a shocked face.

'What a funny expression he has.' Rei thought. "His smile is different than what most people have, it seems to lack something."

"How can you tell?"

"These eyes do more than change colour" to of which had indeed change colour at that moment. "So what was it you needed me to do?" Rei said, changing the subject.

"Never mind that for now, it's better if you learn where everything is in the house first. As you have just seen, the inner garden is that way, it's the centre of the house, this part we're in now are the bedrooms, the room you stayed in last night was a spare room and you'll to one of these rooms tonight. Understand?"

Rei took a moment to take it in. "Yeah I got it"

"Ok then let's continue" Kai said walking down the hall, stopping at a large door with a large phoenix print on it "This is my room. Only come in here when I order you too."

Rei was eyeing the phoenix print.

"I didn't ask for the door to be painted by the way."

"It just looks so cool, if you didn't ask for it then why was it painted on?"

"Some of the dumbasses thought it would be cool and when we first moved in, it helped them know which one was my room. I was going to ask them to take it down, but they a good job with it we just left it there."

"How it is hard to know which one is your room, it's probably the biggest."

"Actually the biggest belongs to the twins." Ignoring Rei's shocked face, he continued. "Further down there is everyone else' rooms, you'll met them later. I think it's time you know where the kitchen and bathrooms are."

Kai moved gracefully though the house, while Rei was trying to take his time absorbing the house. Looking at the decorations and objects; statues, paintings, scrolls and varies random things that made the place seem like home to many people.

"They buy too much junk." Kai commented "Kitchen is just behind that door, bathroom should be down further that way, and toilet should be further down. Main dining room is over there and the living room is that way. If there anything you need ask Tala."

"Should I ask him about you then?" Rei asked.

Kai didn't say anything and walked off to the entrance.


	3. The Others

This is the next chapter for my little ficcy. Many apologise for lateness, I'm going through exams at the moment and I had a lot more ideas for more ficcys I can't get out of my head. So hear we go, original characters have been introduced as well as cute little puppy Max and a hot-headed Brooklyn. Please read on and enjoy.

Disclaimer; I don't own Beyblade if I did then it wouldn't be a shounen manga. Me and Takao Aoki do not have any connection with each other, except we're both Asian.

Good reviews and constructive critics are appreciated and will be used to fuel my drive to write, flames will be used to toast marshmallows and burn evidence.

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After when Kai had left, Rei went in search for Tala. He tried to find the inner garden, to look for him there, but he wasn't with the trees and more. Instead there were four other people. They looked no older then Rei did.

Two looked the same no matter which direction you looked at them. Both had large amber eyes, dark blue hair that curved into their necks and reached their shoulders, their bangs parted on different sides of their faces, covering one eye. They wore orange clothes that made their hair stand out even more, sleeves that were much longer then their arms and flared out at the elbows and baggy khaki-coloured pants. They had cute faces for boys, slender small bodies with long legs and seemed to be the youngest of them. 'These must be the twins Kai was talking about' Rei thought.

Another was a girl, with almost white hair with a tinge of blue, like the flowers in the trees and was held up in two ponytails ending in big curls. She had a more mature body and a figure that would be popular with most males. Her eyes were a bright purple and had a pretty foreign face. Her clothes were deep-purple with white lining patterns, her skirt stopping above her knees.

The last of the four, was a boy. He had blonde hair, blue eyes and a childish face patterned with freckles. Most of this one's features seemed cute and much like an adorable puppy. He's clothes were a deep blue, short sleeved yukata, with grey pants.

Rei was still staring at them when one of the twins noticed that they were being watched. He looked up at Rei and told the others with him. Rei realised he was spotted and tried to make a run for it, but was tackled to the floor by someone, who was surprisingly light as well as strong.

"Hey, what's your name? I'm Max", he said grinning, sitting on top of Rei.

"Get him from under there, you're going to kill him." said the girl. She looked him and looked even prettier up close. "Hello, my name is Alice, you must be the one Kai brought in yesterday. Just like a stray kitten."

Rei was going to protest, but lacked the oxygen to because a certain puppy-like person was still on him.

"Max you're crushing him." One of the twins whined.

"He looks like he's stop breathing" stated the other.

'Just who are these people?' Rei was screaming in his head. The twins finally got Max off of Rei, who was very thankful.

"Awww. Akito, Akira you two are no fun" Max was whining himself. "I'm sure he doesn't mind"

"Err. Its ok, I'm ok now. Well, It's nice to meet you," Rei smiled.

"It's a pleasure" said one of the twins called Akira, smiling shyly back. His brother came from behind him and put his hand on his brother's shoulder, "And this is my older brother, Akito"

Akito looked at Rei with harden eyes, even though he was smiling. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Rei", he said in a quiet voice.

"Hey, Rei do you know how to cook?" came Max's chirpy voice.

"Max! You only met him a minute ago, crushed him and now you're asking to cook for you?" yelled Alice. "Have you no manners?"

"I'm just asking 'cause we never had someone who can cook properly before"

"What does it matter we get to eat at a restaurant almost every night, do know anybody that can afford that?"

"But would be nice to have something home cooked"

"Max, Alice is right. It's just plain rude to ask someone you just met to cook for you" Akito said. "But it would be nice to eat at home for once"

"Not to be as rude as Max, but can you cook?" Akira asked.

"I can cook but I've never cooked for anyone other than myself before" Rei replied, he felt like he was being swept away by a wave.

"That's ok, I wanna try what you're going make if you were cooking for yourself" Max said with a cheery voice.

"That nearly didn't make sense" mumbled Akira.

"Almost everything he says doesn't make sense" Akito informed.

Max was pushing Rei down to the kitchen, followed by Alice and the twins. They stopped and, Rei poked his head in take a look before going in the hardly used and dimly lit kitchen. It definitely looked unused, dust was covered everything all over and cob webs could be seen in every corner, it looked completely abandoned, if Rei didn't see the rest of the house first he would have thought that no one lived here.

Max ran to one of the curtains, hanging in front of the lonely window, and opened it. A shower of dust sprinkled the five of them and coughing fits were style at that second, everybody couldn't stop. Akito rushed out of the room in desperate need of fresh air and Akira followed him a second after. Rei held a hand to his mouth and nose to help filter the dust and opened the window, which was hard because it was used so little.

"I think it's time for some spring cleaning." commented Max.

"You think?" Alice managed between coughs.

Rei didn't say anything he just stuck his head out of the window. He was looking outside at a smaller garden at the back of the house. Tala was standing there, looking at some lavender coloured flowers. His face couldn't be seen so Rei couldn't tell what type of expression he had on, but his aura felt sad and full of regrets and desires; like missing something and wanting it back. Rei stood there staring; he didn't notice that someone was looking at him too.

"So you got an eye out for Tala, huh?" Alice said in Rei's ear, making him jump. "Sorry, but I think he's taken."

"Wha-? No, that's not the case at all, Alice" Rei snapped back. Alice had already stepped out of the kitchen.

"I wonder where the cleaning stuff is. Maybe Ruuka might know" Max said while looking though the cupboards.

"Ruuka?" Rei asked, bewildered that there were more people.

"Come on Rei, let's go!" Max was dragging Rei once again, to find the one called Ruuka.

Rei was feeling dizzy after being pulled down the endlessly twisting halls of the house, and came to a conclusion that there was no way he would remember his way around. He wondered why there were such young people like him living in such a place, as he and Max were coming to the entrance of the house, he felt his hand had been relieved of pressure from Max's hand and they both came to a stop.

Kai had came in at that second followed by a boy that look the same age Alice did, younger than Kai or Tala, but older than Max and Rei. His hair was orange, and spiked up in a style almost similar to fire. His fringe came down to his aqua eyes and sly smirk was visible on his pale face. It wasn't the only thing upon his face, bruises spread themselves across his cheek and a small amount of blood smeared on his white clothes.

"Brooklyn! Oh, did you get into another fight?" Max rushed over to the boy who didn't even look up when his named was called out.

"Max, leave him be, he should have known better than start a fight" Kai said with a stern voice.

"Those morons didn't even stand a chance, it was more of a beating than a fight. They should know by now that they can't possibility beat me, no one has", Brooklyn stated. He turned and noticed Rei standing idly next to Max. "And who's she?"

Kai snorted, Max let out a small giggle, and Rei looked flabbergasted.

"I'm a boy," he said in an angry low voice, his eyes slitting and yellowing.

"What?"

"I'm a guy!" Rei yelled.

"Really, could've fooled me, lady. I, mean have you seen yourself. You have a really cute face, large eyes, heck everything about you seems to scream cute. Max does the same, but with you it's a whole different thing. Really, men would pay more for you in a brothel than any other slut there"

Snap. There's goes Rei's self-control.

PUNCH! With no regards to the bruises already on Brooklyn's face, Rei added another one to his collection.

"Ow! That smarts."

Rei turned around and stomped back into the house, fuming.

'What's wrong with these people? They're so strange; I need to get out of here, quickly'

It took Rei some time before he realised that in his need to get away from the people at the front of the house, he had no idea where he was.

"Waaahh! Where am I?" Rei was cursing himself, and stopped when he saw Tala walking down the hall towards him.

"Rei, what are you doing?" Tala was surprised to see the little kitten looking so flustered.

"I-I got lost…" he muttered, embarrassed.

"Well, in that's the case Rei" Tala chuckled "Let's go out to lunch together"

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I hope you like the characters; there maybe more. Alice and the twins have been based on other anime characters, can you guess which ones? Ruuka won't appear till another few chapters though. I didn't feel too confident of this chapter, portraying characters is kinda hard, but I won't give up. Please review and continue reading.


	4. Lunch with Tala

Here's Chappie 4 of Shadowed Past

Here's Chappie 4 of Shadowed Past. Even after reading this through time after time again, I've realised at how amateur my writing is, which is probably the reason why the chapter updates are so slow, heh sorry, I'll improve myself to become more effective, so please continue to read and don't forget to review!

As for the twins and Alice characters they were based on, I'll congratulate the person that guessed where the twins are from. Akito and Akira are based on Akito/Agito from Air Gear, only Akito has changed into Akira and Agito has changed into Akito, confusing? Not really. The reason why their names have changed is because I have thing for names that start with "Aki". Lind will be featured in later chapters for people who read the manga.

Alice is based on "Rain Child" from XXXholic, I realised in the anime she might have a different hair and eye colour…oops.

Disclaimer: I don't own beyblades or the characters or even the twins and Alice for that matter, if I did then beyblades wouldn't be a shounen manga.

So read on and enjoy. Good reviews will be used to fuel my passion to write, flames will be used ton toast marshmallows and burn evidence.

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The sun had risen directly above the town, indicating that it was indeed time for lunch.

"Hey Tala, where are we going?" Rei asked. He hadn't been in this town for very long so he really didn't know his way around.

"Just a little restaurant. We go there to eat almost everyday for lunch." Tala chuckled. "Because none of us know how to cook, we eat out and rarely have dinner at home."

Tala seemed much different then what he was like before; he was more cheerful and had a different aura. Rei was surprised about the sudden quick change, but paid no heed to it as he was still getting to know him. The streets were very busy around this time, so there were many people walking, shopping, and talking. Children ran gleefully playing; Rei watched, smiling to himself at the happy faces of the people of the village.

"Lovely here isn't?" Tala said, looking at the expression Rei made.

"Yeah it is, it feels laid-back here. Like the matters of the world doesn't exist."

"That's why Kai chose to live in this village when he was banished. This village's location is ideal for people like us. Remote, isolated, far from Tori-fushicho, and the high court practically ignores it because it just about efficiently runs itself."

"Not completely ignored though is it." Rei commented, thinking about how many more times he would be able to walk the streets without being chased to the next town.

"Yes, Kai did tell me about your pursuers the other day, we should be careful with you. We can't have Kai's little helper being run down every time he goes outside to run an errand."

Rei walked a few more paces waiting to be bombarded with questions as to why he's a fugitive, but they never came. Even after they went into the restaurant and sat down still the words still didn't leave Tala's lips.

"Rei you're food's going cold." Tala pointed out.

"Oh, sorry. Umm... about paying you back for this" Rei said after looking at the expensive food; meat and seafood wonton noodles, accompanied by vegetables, fish cake, chopped spring onion and chicken broth (AN; yeah I like my food).

"That's ok, just work diligently under Kai" Tala smiled warmly, placing a fish cake into his mouth.

"Uh, right." Rei took a bite, it was delicious. Rei had wanted to ask his own questions. He thought now would be a good time. "Tala there's something I want to ask"

"It's about Kai isn't? I'm not surprised he does have a certain mysterious air to him. Many people in town also ask questions. Which do you want to start with?"

"Why was Kai banished?" Rei replied instantly.

Tala blinked a few times and chuckled. "Straight to the point, aren't you? I'm sorry but all I can tell you is that, he had tried to commit treason against his grandfather."

"Treason?! Why?"

Tala took a moment and all he could say was "I'm afraid I can't tell you without everyone's permission"

"Why's that?" Rei asked taking another bite. "How are you involved with Kai?"

"Kai and I grew up together, we're like brothers you can say. Anyway, the others and I were part his bodyguards, the strongest of his army and his closes friends. We were all thrown in jail when he was arrested, branded as accomplices, but only some of us were able to escape with him when he left." Tala's voice trailed off, his face became sad and he held his arms in attempt to hug himself. "We still don't know what happened to those who didn't"

"Tala…"

"That's why we moved where" Tala continued, the sly smile returning to his face, "Well; actually Kai had too, Tatsu-ryuu was out of the question and we're too well known Hachurui-kame, someone could have us sent back to Tori-fushicho and thrown in jail again"

"So then…?"

"Yeah to sum it all up, Kai took us away from our fatherland to save us from our past. It's probably the reason why he took you in, he saw you in the same situation as us."

Rei didn't know what to say, he felt a tear fall down his cheek.

"Rei? Why are you crying?"

"I'm sorry" Rei hastily wiped the tear from his cheek, a sad feeling rushing though him. 'Living in a foreign country in order to forget. I would never be able to do that.'

"I'm sorry"

They finished off their lunch and walked back to the mansion.

"Tala, Rei where were you two?" Kai had been worried about Rei when he suddenly took off after the incident with Brooklyn.

"Ha-ha, sorry Rei and I just went out for lunch" Tala apologised; he brought a finger to his lips as if to keep a secret. "We had a little talk as well"

"Alright then as long as he was with you"

"You didn't he was going to run away, did you? My, my where's the trust?"

"Shut up, that's not the case at all. Max got mad at what Brooklyn did after you left and he's making Brooklyn apologise" Kai looked at Rei, noticing a change in the kitten eyes. 'What's with that look on his face? It's kinda cute'. "Come on, Rei. You're missing an event that was made for you."

"Ow, Max! That hurts"

It was a sight to see. Brooklyn was pined down to the floor, face down, Max sitting on his back, pining Brooklyn's arms down with his own, and the twins sitting on one leg each.

"Rei, there you are!" Max called in a cheerful voice. He then looked down at the struggling mass beneath him. "Say sorry to Rei now" he glared, evilly (AN; que the fan girl 'squeal' now).

Brooklyn growled. "Why the hell should I? You were laughing too"

"Apologise."

"Urk"

Brooklyn began to frail his limbs around, causing the twins to hold on tighter to his legs as they were just suddenly being jostled into the air. Rei couldn't help laugh at the ridiculous sight. Kai's eyes staying on the beautiful laughing face.

"I know you're thinking whether it was a good idea to bring him in with us but" Tala said quietly to Kai. "Don't worry about him so much, I think he's going to enjoy staying here"

His reply was a small "Hn".

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Sorry if this chapter felt rushed. I keep reading it over to myself thinking "This feels so weird, but I want to write a little more about Kai's background". I'm finding it hard enough to write how Kai and Rei gain and realise their feelings for each, such slow progress… I'm thinking to myself I should not have written that but hey it's late where I'm from and I haven't updated in a really long time. Yay for holidays… Anywho if you enjoyed it please review, if you don't like it and can tell me why in a nice constructive review and if you absolutely hated it and going to send me a flame what the hell were you reading it for?


	5. Shopping with Alice

The sun had already risen, but Rei was unable to wake up

Well here we go chapter 5. A little bit of Tala's past is revealed, not much really. I've had quite the writers block with this chapter, making up the weirdest scenarios, but thanks to a review from all the way in the first chapter I think I managed to stay on track. The story, mainly Rei's, will be a little fast paced because I didn't want to waste my time beating around the bush with pointless stories. Anyways, read on and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade or it's characters in anyway. If I did then it wouldn't a shounen.

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The sun had already risen, but Rei was unable to wake up. He had spent the night before cleaning, dusting, sweeping and wiping the un-used kitchen, making it re-usable- hopefully.

"Rei, hey wake up man. The sun's up already" Max was gently repeating this to Rei since he got up. The twins had been woken up more rudely and were becoming impatient with Max.

"Max just leave him be, when he wakes up, he'll wake up." Akito whispered.

"But I really wanted to try Rei's cooking." Max replied trying to give Akito his puppy-dogged-eyed look. "Akira you want to try it too, don't you?" Max asked, addressing the other twin.

Akira opened his mouth in an attempt to reply, but was cut off by the looming figure that appeared in the door way.

"Oh, Kai good morning" Max grinned.

"What are you doing? Let Rei rest he's been working up late cleaning the part of the house we call the kitchen, so leave him be. Besides he's probably more tired after the mess you caused."

Akito didn't waste any time rushing himself and his brother out of Rei's new room, it didn't take a genius to tell Kai was still pissed off from the night before.

"Rei, do you by chance know how to cook?" Rei found himself shocked when he had realised who had asked him.

"Kai? Yeah I know how to cook, but I've never really cooked for other people" Rei replied. 'Am I getting deja-vu?'

"Well that's your task tonight, clean up the kitchen and tomorrow we'll see if you can cook or not. You can get someone to help you" Kai added, looking at Rei's face, remembering the state of the kitchen.

So, later after looking for cleaning utilities and the kitchen, Rei set off to work with the dust covered kitchen. Moments after starting, Max decided that he had wanted to help.

"Sure thing, Max. You can sweep the floor from dust." Which, he had indeed begun to do, with a bit too much enthusiasm; his fast paced sweeping caused dust to fly everywhere.

"Maybe you should wipe them instead", Rei choked though coughing fits.

That proved just as bad, Max tipped over the bucket of water, causing Rei to slip and land hard onto the floor.

"W-Why don't you clean the plates?"

SMASH.

"Oops, I dropped them"

"We need to clean it up before someone cuts themselves" Rei hastily moved to clean the broken porcelain on the floor and sliced his finger on a stray piece. "Ow"

"Rei! Are you ok?" Max rushed to look at Rei's little wound, not watching where his feet were going, nearly stepping on the shattered plates.

"Hey watch out, don't step on the plates!" Rei yelled, pushing Max out of the way and adding more cuts onto his already bleeding hand. Kai had come at that time to check out the cleaning progress, one name passed his mouth loudly when he saw the floor covered in water, broken plates and blood from Rei's bleeding hand.

"MAX!!"

"Eep"

And with a quick lecture and a "Big Meanie" Max left the room, leaving Kai alone with the sleeping Rei.

Rei remained asleep, scrunched up in the foetal position, only twitching whenever someone said his name. Kai watched the sleeping kitten, looking carefully at his features. Rei's face had a cute angelic peaceful look, his hair was let loose flowing around him and spread out on the overly large bed. Kai sat next to him on the bed, reaching his hand to the soft tempting hair, brushing it away from Rei's face. In doing so, Kai saw the odd shape of Rei's ears; long and pointed.

'That's strange' he thought to himself, lightly tracing his finger along the ear. Rei mumbled at his touch, turning his body so he was lying on his back, allowing Kai to have a better look at his peaceful face. It had already been three days since Rei had moved in, but it was only now that he realised why Tala called Rei 'Kitten'. He really did look like a cat. The pointed ears, sharp eyes, cute little nose and a small fang probing out from his slightly parted lips. Kai felt himself tilt closer to Rei, keeping his eyes on Rei's lips, his hand lightly holding Rei's smooth cheek. He was getting closer and closer until his own lips brushed onto Rei's, when they touched Kai suddenly snapped out of his trance, forcing himself to distance away from the still sleeping figure.

'What did I just do?' Kai's mind was running in circles, the same thought repeating itself in his head. He needed to clear out his head. Kai walked down briskly down the halls, face growing redder and redder. He turned the corner and bumped into Tala and Alice.

"Hello, Kai. Is Rei up yet?" Tala asked, his eyes flashing, suspiciously, at Kai's red face. Alice also took notice at her former boss' strange behaviour. "What happened now, Kai?"

"I think I nearly tried to…" Kai started and found himself faltering. "I tried to… to…"

"Tried to do what?" Alice said, impatient with Kai's unlike-him stutter. "Come on spit it out"

"I think I nearly tried to kiss Rei"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Alice sat on the pathway in the inner garden with Kai and Tala, laughing her head off.

Kai was getting annoyed, and feeling more humiliated about what he did, or nearly did.

"Kai, you shouldn't beat yourself over this." Tala said reassuringly "You can't help it if you want jump Rei"

"Tala! Alice stop laughing!" Kai yelled, frustrated. Alice's laughing quietened down considerably, but the giggles could still be heard during the conservation/rubbing salt into the wound. "He hasn't even been here for a week yet" he groaned.

"Maybe you should just relax and don't fret over it too much, it's not like you really kissed him"

"But I wanted to" Kai's head was turmoil, he didn't know what he was doing or why.

"Aw, Kai's in love" Alice squealed loudly, recovering from her giggling fits. "The cold bastard's actually in love!"

"And he fell for him in only three days or maybe less, maybe it's a case of love at first sight?" Tala smiled.

"What? No way that's not true… I can't be" Kai found his voice faltering again and unable to look at the two in the face. "He's a-"

"If you dare say 'I can't love him because he's a guy' I'll kill you" Tala snapped, anger now burning in his blue eyes, the conversation dramatically changing into a hostile situation. "You tell me what's so wrong about loving another person!"

Kai looked at him with wide eyes, realising what his words had done. "I'm sorry, Tala I didn't mean to make you angry." He apologised, "I just don't know how to deal with something like this. You remember don't you? I was raised to have no emotions"

Alice upon hearing this became furious, her giggles turning into angry huffs. She strode over to Kai and grabbed him by the collar, bringing his face close to hers.

"Kai you tell me one person that knows how to control their emotions, tell me if you know anyone who can chose who they fall in love with, tell me when you meet someone who truly is derived of all emotion, then you can say whether or not you can love Rei" Alice told Kai firmly, her tone turned into a deadly poison. "If you haven't forgotten the reason why you brought us to Tora-nekoi, then I think you may have to remind yourself and if you still don't take a real good long look at the gravestone back 'home'".

Alice stood up and walked away, refusing to look back at the person she had once called saviour. She was furious at him for using such a pathetic excuse to mask his feelings. As Alice turned the corner, Kai looked at Tala, who was still upset from his earlier remark and he looked like he was on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

"Tala, I'm sorry. Will you be ok?" Kai whispered, letting Tala fall into his arms.

"I don't know" came the muffled reply. "I miss him so much. I want to see him"

"I know, but we can't. And we don't know if Gra-, if _he_ has done anything to him and everything he did to make sure you got out would be in vain" Kai didn't know what to do in this kind of situation, he knew even if he held Tala like this it wouldn't be enough. Tears began to soak through his clothes and he slowly rocked the crying redhead, wondering if things will always be like this.

"Bryan" was the last thing Tala said before falling asleep.

Rei finally woke up, feeling much more refreshed after last nights mishap. He sat up and looked at his bandaged hand. He chuckled when he remembered Kai's reaction to his bleeding hand, he amused himself with the memory of Kai overly wrapping his hand and walked out of his room. He had just closed his door when Kai walked by him carrying Tala on his back.

"Kai, what happened to Tala? Is he ok?" Rei asked, slightly alarmed.

"Oh you're up. Don't worry Tala will be fine, he just fell asleep outside." Kai said, trying his best not to make it sound like a complete lie. "So is your hand feeling better? It doesn't hurt?" he asked trying to attract Rei's attention away from Tala. It worked.

"It's ok, it's stopped bleeding so I should be fine" Rei replied, waving his hand around. "And the kitchen's all clean too, even after all the mess Max made. I can go to the markets later and buy food and some more plates and cook dinner"

Kai reached Tala's room and slid the door open with his foot, Rei watched as Kai placed Tala down on the deep lavender coloured satin sheeted bed. He took a moment to look around the large room; random objects like; books, ornaments, statues, paintings and scrolls filled it. A wind chime hung from the window, tinkling peacefully as a small gust of wind past.

Rei faced his attention back to Tala, who began to toss and turn, beads of sweat appeared on his pale forehead and letting out whimpers.

"He's having a nightmare?" Rei whispered, over Tala's struggled cries.

The small "Yeah" was barely audible.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Kai and Rei left the room, Kai remained silent and flashing Rei random looks every now and then. This continued until they reached the inner garden, where an angry Alice could be seen leaning against the pastel pink tree. She was still angry at Kai and turned her head the other way when she saw them approach.

"Afternoon Rei, it's nice to see that you're up. It seemed like you were going to sleep forever" Alice said, her head still turned in the other direction. "Max wants to know whether or not your hand is ok. That or he wants to eat"

Rei was aware at Alice's dark aura of madness that was pouring out of her, and tried not to think about it too much. He was beginning to understand there reason why she was so upset, she refused to turn her head towards the guy behind him and Rei started to feel awkward between the two.

"Are you going shopping, I'll come with you. I'll help you carry the things we're getting" Alice said, stepping away from the tree. "Hurry up, we need to be back before it gets dark. You slept right through lunch, so the least you can do is make us a feast"

Without looking once at Kai, Alice walked away mentioning Rei to follow, Rei looked at Kai, who just gave him a pouch of coins and walked away. Rei ran after Alice when Kai was out of sight, he found her marching down the hall.

"Alice, are you ok? You seem kind of-"

"Pissed off? Yeah I guess you can say that." She interrupted, stomping her way though the house. "Let's go, I need to clear my head."

Rei nodded and followed Alice to the markets, hoping her bad mood would blow off quickly. They soon reached the food markets where it was filled with people, moving from stall to stall trying to find the best value for vegetables and fresh meat.

"Argh that's so gross" Alice said, screwing up her nose at the sight of a duck being beheaded. "Look at all the blood. How disgusting"

"You don't want to eat duck?" Rei asked, holding its limp body and paying for the freshly slaughtered duck. "I'll go buy some fish and meat too. Kai has given us a lot of money, so I think it should be enough"

At the sound of Kai's name, Alice became silent, her face darkening. Rei suddenly remembered who she was mad at and backed away slowly. She lifted her head up and screeched;

"Kai's a freaking moron!" Many people stopped to look at the commotion then muttered amongst themselves as they moved around her. Alice put her head back down, breathing in deeply and lifted it back up, smiling. Rei was taken aback, not knowing what her next unpredictable move will be, and then she started to laugh, making Rei even more confused.

"I really needed that. I'm sorry did I scare you, Rei?" Alice asked, looking at Rei's baffled face. "So what else do we need?"

The rest of the afternoon went by quickly and the two were on their home, carrying a large amount of vegetables, meat, fish, seafood and a bloodied bag of freshly butchered birds.

"You could have told me that they were going to cut its head off. It disturbs me to know that I watched my food die" Alice sighed, trying her best not to look at the red sack. "It was moving for three whole minutes before it… I think I'm gonna throw up"

"Chickens still move around after when they're heads are chopped off. Somewhere in a town to the east, there was a chicken that survived for weeks after its head was cut off." Rei chuckled, smiling at Alice's disgusted face.

"Stop that, that's gross." Alice began to laugh, despite her nauseous feeling. It vanished when a voice from behind called out to them;

"You there stop! You're the one that's wanted by the High Court!"

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I can't believe I did that! I actually wrote about beheaded chickens! Oh, the cliff-hanger? Yeah that too and with my pace of uploading new chapters… please be patient with me.


	6. Blast from the past

Chappie six

Wow, it's been a while huh? I've been so distracted lately to remember to update. Well it's my excuse anyway. Anywhoo enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own beyblade or it's characters, if I did it wouldn't be a shounen.

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"Alice! Where's Rei?"

Alice managed to stumble her way into the house grounds carrying everything they brought that afternoon, including the repulsive meat bag. The only thing missing was Rei.

"Rei's in trouble, he being chased by some guys from the High Court!" she screamed, alerting everyone in the house. "They just called out, he ran and they chased after him. He told me to go home and not to worry but-"

"It's ok Alice, Rei will be fine" Kai butted in. "He's outrun them before and he'll do it again." But this didn't relieve him of his worries, "Everyone help Alice get off the ground and take the food to the kitchen. I'm going to find Rei"

"Is that a good idea, maybe we should come too?" Max asked, worried. An expression of anxiety riddled his puppy-like face.

"No, it'll be best if I went alone. With everyone going around it's going to look suspicious. You just wait for him if he comes back, ok?" Kai replied, his back turned to the occupants of his house. "See you all later"

Kai walked out the entrance, heading towards the markets; in hopes to find Rei running around the area he was last seen. The twins pulled Alice from the ground, brushing dirt from her dress. The shopping being picked up and taken away, a question running among a few: "Where's the kitchen again?"

Rei found himself running along an unfamiliar street. Not knowing whether or not he would make it back to the house again.

'They're really persistent today. Shit this is going to be harder than before…I have no idea where I'm going' Rei's mind kept going back to the house and the safety of it's large structure, despite the many times he had gotten lost. He began to think of the people he met during the short stay, some like Max and the twins stayed near him, becoming friends, while others kept their distance. His thoughts went onto the head of house, Kai. Rei wasn't so sure what he thought about him; he had been a lot of trouble when they first met, but now it's different.

"Where's he gone?"

"Over there!"

Rei was fumbling his way thought the crowd of people, making it difficult to keep track where he was, the pursuers becoming swept away by the sea of people. Rei continued to run determined to lose the pursuers and return with enough time to still cook the dinner he had promised. He didn't know why, he had no obligation, he just had to even though it would be easier to just leave this town and move on to another like he had done so before. So why was it that it tore up him when he thought of leaving?

"We order you to stop in the name of the high court!"

Rei quickly turned the corner, tripping over a stray piece of wood. Picking himself up, he found himself unable to put much weight on his left foot, he limped moving his way into an alley way. He collapsed behind some wooden boxes, breathing heavily as pain shot up his leg, the pursuers still searching for the wanted Rei, stood near where he sat. He changed his breathing, so his heavy huffs weren't heard by the pursuers; he waited hoping that they'll move on. Time past and Rei was still, unmoving as if the smallest movement would reveal his location, he could hear people moving around him, he couldn't tell who the sounds came from the pursuers or the villagers, he froze when he felt someone's presence near-by.

"Found him"

Rei felt his heart skip a beat, dread filling him as he awaited the hands to take him back to his nightmare, the footsteps sounding in Rei's ears got closer and closer.

'Damn it. Shit, I can't run anymore, not with my leg like this' Rei though, wincing as he place a small amount of pressure onto his injured ankle, his eyes yellowed and slit. 'Guess, I'll have to fight'

Ignoring the pain from his injury, Rei moved to his feet preparing himself to fight off his pursuers.

"What you want to fight? I'm sure you can't do anything with that ankle." Rei's eyes became wide when he realised who was chasing him. Instantly recognising the wild black hair tied at the base of the neck, tanned skin, bulky build and the same yellowed eyes staring back at him. "What are you doing Rei? You're going to end up making your parents cry"

"Rai… why the hell are you here?" Rei lent onto the crate to relieve pressure from his ankle.

"What else? I'm here to bring you home, it's been 5 years already, give it up" Rai said, taking a step closer causing Rei to take an inch back. "You've had your taste of freedom, now it's time that you came back. Your mother and father are becoming impatient and restless-"

"Are they really that fed up that they even sent you?" Rei interrupted. "Rai, you understand why I left in the first place, why are you making me go back now?"

"Because I received special orders to help find you and take you back, even if it means by force" Rai told him, showing Rei the blade hoisted on his waist. "Even those punk ass idiots that have tailing you all this time don't even know who are, Rei don't make this hard one yourself, if this keeps up your punishment will only more severe"

"Like hell. Don't you mean, if you are unable to 'arrest' me, you'll be in deep shit" Rei replied, desperation and pain getting to him.

"Such vulgar language, but your ability of perception is as sharp as ever. Rei, if I am indeed unable to retrieve you to the High Court then my punishment for my incompetence is death. That's how serious they are now, they're not going to let you go so easily and my head on the silver platter is proof of that. Even so I accepted this, if it meant that I can bring you home"

"Rai… Do those bastards want me to continue living this way, they're gonna keep me in line by killing my friends? What sort of parenting is that?!" Rei yelled, his emotions becoming a chaotic mess inside his chest. "I don't want to go back, but I don't want you to die either. Everything I did up to know would all been in vain"

"Everything you did?! You've been doing nothing, but run for the past 5 years! The High Court is going to need its heir soon, without you this country will be thrown into chaos!" Rai yelled.

"Why would they need me, they have you don't they?"

Rei thought he had a memory lapse because the only he could remember after he said that was a sharp pain against his cheek. Rei stumbled and fell to the ground, allowing himself a few seconds to realise that he had been slapped. He held his silence and looked at Rai towering him, who looked like he was going to put his sword on his waist in a new location inside Rei's chest.

"They chose you to succeed them not me, I'm completely useless to them!" Rai yelled, hating himself because if he couldn't bring him back, he truly will become worthless.

"What the hell difference it makes? We have the same blood, the same eyes, we have the same father for fuck's sake! Why me? Why does it have to be me? I don't want to be trapped in that cage forever, I don't want to be told that the choices I make will affect other people's lives"

"I'm sorry to tell you, but that is happening now. It's up to you now whether I not I can continue living in this world. If you chose to return, then my life is spared and you live in a golden cage till the day you die, but if you leave now and chose your freedom, then this is the last time you see my head still attached to my body, but you still will be chased down like an animal." Rai understood that no matter what choice his little half brother made, in the end Rei would be in torment. Rei didn't know what to say, he hated being so indecisive, his choices were so limited and he knew that running away would do nothing. He would be better off dead if he went back, but Rai would be if he chose his selfish wish of remaining outside.

"Rai…" Rei felt like something was lodged in his throat, it had just became so hard to speak "Rai…I don't know what to do…I don't-"

"Well normally people would give up their selfish desires in order to protect their friends and family, but you're the first guy I met who would struggle over a decision of their own freedom or a man's life." A familiar voice called out, its owner walking towards the two.

"How long have you been there?" Rei asked realising who it was. "How much did you here, Kai?"

"Enough" was his reply, Kai was only standing a few metres away from Rai. Rai placed his hand on his sword's hilt, preparing to attack if it became necessary. Kai looked at the sword and the stance Rai was making and chuckled. "I'm sorry but I promised I wouldn't hold a sword anymore, so put it away, it's dishonourable to draw your weapon at a disarmed opponent"

Rai looked at Kai, he was suspicious at Kai's sudden appearance and he wasn't going to let his guard down. Rai placed his eyes on Kai's face remembering where he had seen the blue marks on his face before.

"You're Kai Hiwatari, aren't you? I thought the rumours of you living here in Tora-nekoi were false" Rai said, keeping his eye on Kai, while moving closer towards Rei. "You and a bunch of kids from your little army are living in this town, guess it would make sense, but what does Rei have to do with you?"

"I'm his personal servant or at least I am till he gets bored of me" Rei replied, smiling at Rai's shocked face while picking himself of the ground.

"Servant? What are you talking about?" Rai asked, he wanted an explanation and he wanted it now.

"Rei made a decision a few days ago, become my servant or be handed into the High Court." Kai explained "And of course, he chose his freedom".

"All he chose was to be locked into some other cage. Why would you, what did you gain from doing so?"

"I did it to satisfy my curiosity. He was wanted by the High Court and the reason was top secret. I wanted to know why" Kai was watching Rai move closer to Rei and noticed Rei's injured ankle. 'Shit, if that guy gets to him now there's no way Rei can run'

Rai was already a metre away from Rei. Rei looked at Kai, he desperate to be able to reach him but Rai was in blocking him.

'I'm sorry, Rai, but this is the only thing I can do' Rei, ignoring his injury, ran towards Rai, striking him at the back of his head with his elbow. While Rai was recovering from shock and the blow to his head, Rei keep moving towards Kai, who caught him as he fell over. Kai picked Rei up and slung him over his back. Making sure Rei was secure, he ran.

"That was dangerous" Kai yelled, running through the people back to his house. Rei was surprised at the speed Kai was running, it couldn't have been easy running at such a pace while carrying another person. "Didn't your friend say he was going to be beheaded if you stayed outside? You just traded in a life so you can keep running for yours"

Rei looked back and replied with a smile on his face, "No, it's alright. See he's following us"

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Wow… and before anyone asks, Rai is a dumbass. But the whole point was to prove that he was desperate for his dad's attention up to the point of craziness (?). Also while I was writing this , I discovered a little something: Kai + Rei Rai. If it gets too confusing then tell me and I'll change Rai's name to the English version.


	7. My Brother

Chappie seven

Many apologises for the late upload last time. I don't have a proper schedule, so every time I update would be very random. But continue to read on and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own beyblades or any of the characters, if I did it wouldn't be a shounen. Oh and Rai is Lee in the English version, just to clear any confusions.

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Kai ran through the streets with Rei holding on for dear life, his half brother trailing them from a distance. A trailer of cabbages came into their way and blocked their path, but Kai and Rei didn't crash into it. Kai acted quickly, doing whatever came to mind first.

"Rei, promise you won't freak out, ok?" Kai yelled out. "Ready?"

"Kai! What are you- Whoa!" Rei screamed out as he was thrown into the air, he felt the pull of gravity as he fell, then he felt pushed forwards again as Kai caught him and continued to run. "Shit, what the hell were you thinking?! Are you crazy?!"

"Shut up and check if he's still following us" Kai yelled back. Rei looked over and even though Rai smashed into the trailer of cabbages, he was unfazed and continued to chase after them.

Cries of: "My cabbages! My cabbages!" here heard from behind them.

"He's still following us" Rei replied, turning back. He now realised the way Kai was holding him, when Kai caught him before. The shock of it must have made Rei not notice that he was being held bridal style, he didn't realise how close to Kai's face he had gotten. Rei felt his cheeks rise in temperature when he found himself staring at Kai's face. He knew it wasn't the right time to do so, but he couldn't take his eyes off Kai. Rei felt strange, even though they were in such a predicament, he didn't want this moment to stop.

"Rei, is he still there?" Kai asked, waking Rei from his trance. Rei looked back, Rai was still following them, stumbling every now and then.

"Kai, slow down, he's not keeping up" Rei yelled back. Kai did as he was told and slowed his pace so Rai would be able to at least keep sight of them. They turned a corner, Rei looked again and sighed in relief when he saw Rai moving behind them.

"We're nearly back, is he okay back there?" Kai asked, seeing the house's walls in view.

"He looks tired and he's fallen a few times, too" Rei replied.

Rai was indeed exhausted from all that running, he was going to quit when they turned out of his sight. He told himself, if he could no longer see them he would give up and try and continue the search later. There was still time before he would be at the mercy of the High Court. Using the last of his energy, he ran, hoping that he would still see the two. When he looked, he found himself staring at a large house, Rei and Kai were standing there. No longer able to stand Rai fell to his knees, collapsing from fatigue. He looked at Rei, staring into the grey eyes.

"Rei, what is the meaning of this? What are you trying to do?" Rai asked, catching his breath.

"The only thing I can" Rei replied. "This is the only thing I can think of that will let me stay outside and you keep your head"

"You're going to take me hostage?" Rai laughed "They will never allow it, I'm useless to them, why would they bother trying to get me back? We've already spent so long chasing you, they'll probably let you kill me anyway. Save them the trouble of doing so"

Kai was becoming impatient, listening to what Rai was saying was making him mad. After how easily he said all those things, yet he still obeys his orders, the only word Kai could think to describe him was-

"Pathetic"

"What? What did you just call me?" Rai asked, looking at Kai through dangerously wide eyes.

"Pathetic. Listen to yourself, whining about how useless you are to them, how much they need Rei, telling him if he chooses to not go with you, then your head will be chopped off and he would have to bear the burden of your death over his head" Kai answered, his voice becoming like a sharp blade to Rai's ears. "You know that you're only a bargaining chip to 'them' and yet you're still doing whatever means to please them. Why would you? For what, a moments praise, or to feel superior then Rei because you are free to live your life?"

"What do you know about us, you maybe the grandson of the current Hiwatari Clan leader, but that gives you no right to judge me" Rai yelled, afraid to admit that something Kai said was true.

Rei sat in the doorway, unable to keep his eyes of the two. Was Kai right? Maybe all Rei was to him was a scapegoat, something to use to free himself, or to a back door into their father's heart?

He was confused and so fixated, he didn't notice the amount of people building behind him, watching everything that happened when they came in. Rei jumped slightly as he felt his injured foot lifted and water was poured onto the swollen joint. Tala examined his foot, making sure that the damage made wasn't too serious. He was handed some bandages and began to wrap Rei's foot. Rei's eyes moved back to Kai and Rai, the two had become silent and the tension could be felt by everyone. Everything was quiet until Rai spoke.

"Rei, you need to understand. You can't keep living like this forever, sometime eventually you'll regret making the decision to do so." Rai said in a clear firm voice. "Your mother and father wants you to replace them as their role in the High Court."

"Wait isn't the High Court supposed to be a democratic order, why would they need Rei?" Akira spoke up, appearing next to Rei.

"That's what it was originally, but now it's basically run by a set of people choosing what to do with what part of the country by whatever means." Tala replied. "The ones who confirms the decisions made are Rei's parents, so he would be the one they chose to replace them"

"So, is that the reason you were chased by people of the High Court?" Kai finally said, his crimson eyes now staring into Rei's. "I'd have to say not as exciting as I thought it would be, but still interesting enough…I guess"

Rei opened his mouth to talk back, but his voice seemed to be muted.

"So your part of the Kon family, well neko-jins do make great deciders having animal instinct and all." Tala said with a sly smile. "This also explains why 'Kitten' was such a good name for you."

Rei looked at Kai, not bothering to comment on Tala's remark. He nodded and said quietly "Yeah, my last name is Kon and I'm supposed to take responsibility of Tora-nekoi by 'choosing what to do with what part of the country by whatever means', but instead I ran away at the very first chance I got, pretty pathetic story huh?" (AN: even I think it's a crap background and I'm the one writing it)

"But decisions are hard to make when you don't know what to do, am I right?" Kai asked Rei, his hot crimson eyes staring into Rei's golden ones.

"What the hell would you know?" Rai yelled "He didn't even tell you anything about it until now. He didn't even trust you enough to tell you why he was being chased-"

"Shut the hell up. I was already aware of the fact that he was hiding something from us, it probably was the reason why I took him in. I couldn't careless whether he told me out front or if some random told me off the street." Kai said, his sharp deadly glare pierced through Rai. "None of that matters anymore anyway. His stay may have been short but I'm sure no one else here wants to give up their new friend without a fight"

"Yeah, Kai's right. I don't Rei to leave because you tell him too. I still have to try his cooking" Max yelled, startling everyone around him. "I just made friends with Rei, I don't want him to go, ever"

Many people agreed with Max, Rei looked at the people with disbelief. 'I barely even met half these people'

"I'm sorry, Max. But it's not as simple as that" Tala said, in a quiet voice. "According to the fellow on the ground, if Rei doesn't go then his head would no longer be on his shoulders"

"Then we'll break his legs so he can't move or go anywhere" Brooklyn snickered, disappearing from behind a corner.

Rei stood up, with great trouble, wobbled passed Kai and knelt down in front of Rai.

"Rai, you were the one that let me go 5 years ago, are truly that desperate for father's attention? Just enough to be put though this?" Rei asked, his concerned grey eyes staring at Rai's face. "Tell me please, Brother"

Rei's eyes bore into Rai's, hoping to find his answer.

"I'm sorry, but…it's true. Father never thought of me as his own, I was just a result from a one-night-stand with a concubine. I was jealous at the attention you had, but even so you were my little half-brother. I couldn't stand it, these mixed feelings; jealously over Father's love and feelings as a brother. When you told me that you wanted to leave home and live 'outside', I didn't understand why I let you go. I thought I was helping out as an act of being an older brother, but somewhere else inside told me that wasn't true, that it wasn't for your sake but my own"

By now tears had begun to roll endlessly down Rai's cheeks, even though he was choking through them he continued to talk. "Somewhere in the back of my mind thought that maybe if you were gone then Father would realise that I could be the one to take their place. That responsibility you ran away from could have been what I needed. So you left, the news got spread quickly and the search warrant was sent out. But because this was a matter of leaving on your free will, the people sent to chase you down were never told of your position. And that fleeting dream that Father would accept me if you were gone disappeared before it was even started"

"Because a dream is just a dream" Rei said. "There's a reason why they aren't called Reality"

"Rei?"

"Rai, I'm going to stay here. Stay outside with these people and I don't intend to leave. Please tell Father and Mother that" Rei told Rai firmly, his expression serious. "The High Court is not a nepotistic democracy, such a thing doesn't exist. I shouldn't be the one made to decide what fate falls upon the country, I'm not strong enough for that"

"I can't accept such an answer!" Rai yelled, a shocked expression appearing on Rei's face. "They don't want anyone else, even if I told them that they'll never accept it. They'll just continue to chase you until they find you and take you home."

"Rai, you're not listening. I'm not going back, I'll never go back. I'll keep fighting and I'll keep running. And if I'm ever caught, I'll bite my tongue off without hesitation"

Rai looked into Rei's yellow eyes, unable to turn away. The burning desire they reflected roared and it was long before anybody spoke.

"You're despicable, you've just cut my head off for the sake of yourself. I never realised how selfish we both are"

"I've always been this way, it's how humans are (AN: wait, I thought they were neko-jins). But there's one part where you're wrong: I haven't chopped your head of just yet, you're staying here with me just like before. This is ok with you isn't, Kai?"

Kai watched, slightly surprised at the result of their conversation. His mind was blank until he heard his name again, Rei was staring at him expecting for a positive answer. The blue head slowly looked around him, searching for approval. He looked at Tala, who smiled and nodded. Red met yellow again and Kai sighed.

"Only as long as you're here, he can stay"

Rei smiled in relief and appreciation. "Thank you"

Kai turned he's head away, embarrassed at how hot his face felt and how fast his heart was beating. Rai exhaled loudly, almost as if he's been holding his breath the whole conversation.

"Not exactly the world's best plan, but it would have to do. You don't have a choice" Rei said in a low voice. "Father's not going to be happy that both his sons have decided not to come home."

"The High Court isn't going to be happy either. There's no one to take their place if you're not there"

"It's a democracy isn't than just let everybody vote" This time it was Max that spoke up, surprising everyone around him. "I mean, everyone is saying that the High Court wants Rei to make decisions for them, but then they're saying that it's a democracy. I don't get it anymore!" he yelled frustrated.

Everyone around him laughed as Max began to pout. Alice gave him a big hug when Max looked like he was about to cry.

"Aww, you're such a cutie sometimes. Our little puppy" laughter of agreement rang throughout the occupants, Alice turned turn her head and glared at Rai. "And as for you, you've caused a lot of trouble already and the fact you sold Rei off just for your own gain pisses me off, give me one reason why I shouldn't beat the crap out of you"

"Because it looks like Brooklyn's going to do it for you" Akito said pointing at the orange head maniac holding a large stone and walking towards the three dumbfounded people near the entrance of the house. Everyone watched silently as Brooklyn acted out his plan to keep Rei from leaving, panic flowed amongst them when they saw Brooklyn lift the stone high above his head…

"GAAAAAHHH!"

"Wait stop!"

"Go for it, Brooklyn!"

"Who would have thought he was serious"

"Shouldn't we stop him?"

"Brooklyn put that down!"

"Mwahahahahaha!"

After the series of incidents with Brooklyn, the stone and the Let's-Break-His-Legs-So-Rei-Doesn't-Have-To-Go plan, everyone retreated back into their rooms and continued their day or evening, by the time the talk between Rei and Rai had ended the sun had already set and it was long past dinnertime.

"Looks like we finally get eat Rei's cooking tomorrow" Max cheered, practically dancing down the halls.

"Hmm too bad we didn't get to break that guy's legs" Alice complained, disappointed.

"Sometimes I think you're too violent to be a girl" Akito said.

"What was that?"

"Err…Uh…Hey isn't that Rei over there?" Akira said, looking over into the inner garden, quickly diverting Alice's attention.

"Yeah, but the Rai guy still seems a bit suspicious to me" Akito said, spotting the other neko-jin sitting next to Rei.

"I know what you mean, let's call it a day. I'm going to bed" Akira yawned, he and Akito turned the corner to their room. "Hey, let's go buy some paint tomorrow."

"Hey that's a great idea" Max smiled hopping along side the two. "We can paint a big kitty!"

"Maybe a tiger might be a little more adequate" Akito replied. Alice watched the three disappear around the corner, she then turned her sights onto the two neko-jins sitting by the moon lit trees. The two have been sitting there for a while now, they seemed to be in the middle of a reminiscing session, Alice watched them for awhile before walking to her own room with the purple and blue butterfly painted on the door.

Rei sat in the purple flowered tree, despite the injured ankle he managed to pull himself onto its branches.

"These trees are…" Rai started, his voice faltered before he was able to finish his sentence.

"Aren't they nice? I don't know why but looking at the flowers makes me feel nostalgic" Rei said, playing with one of the purple petals. "It calms me down just looking at them"

"You really don't remember do you? At home there are trees like these planted in the garden where we used to play" Rai said "That's probably the reason it's nostalgic, after all you loved to climb on them"

"Really? I don't remember" Rei stared at the petals trying to remember.

"You don't? You even fell out of them when you climbed too high. There's even a bump from where you hit you head" Rai pointed at the back of his head. Rei sub-consciously raised his hand and indeed a small bump was there.

"I remember now, how long ago was that?" Rei asked, rubbing the bump. He slowly climbed down from the tree, and hopped onto the wooden pathway.

"When you were nine" Rai answered. "You cried for an entire day when your mother told you that you weren't allowed to climb them after that"

Both of them began to laugh at the memory of that day's events. Then when their laughter died a silent tension rose between them. Rei stared at the trees while Rai looked up at the moon.

"The moon was like this when you left, you know" Rai said. "It was nearly 5 years ago, I can't believe that all that time has passed already"

"Yeah, I was only 11 when I left. It was amazing there were so many things I haven't seen before, people, towns, villages, cities, land marks, animals and plants, it wasn't long before I realised that all of it was controlled by the High Court. If I was left in charge then all the beauty I've seen could all be destroyed instantly if I made the wrong choice. Just like what happen to-"

"Rei, enough." Rai interrupted. "I understand what you mean, but you can't let that one mistake take control of your life. It's normal for people to make mistakes-"

"But you can't make mistakes when you're in charge of the decisions made for the country" Rei looked at his feet, the sprained ankle tightly bound in bandages. "Just one can ultimately lead to a war"

"So you expect for another take your place and make those mistakes?" Rai asked, the moon light shadowed his face and yet his gold eyes were visible. "You think there is someone in the world that is not able to make mistakes, it's impossible. No such person can ever exist, Rei, mistakes can be corrected, strength can be built up, weakness is only a barrier to be destroyed. Isn't that what they taught you Rei? They would be sad if they saw you now"

Rei looked up in shock at the sound of the names, his eyes turned yellow and his breathing seemed like it had stopped.

Rai watched the yellow eyes glow in turmoil, his head no longer mattered just as long as Rei realised that you didn't have to be God to make decisions, it was enough.

"You're right Rai. I've forgotten what they told me, but I'm still staying because they also taught me not live in regret and I know I'll definitely regret going back. I'll enjoy living in this peaceful country until the next idiot makes a mistake."

The two became silent and both were staring at the moon. Rei yawned, fatigue taking over but he wasn't ready to sleep yet. "You know there's still one matter that must be handled"

"What?"

"Those people who have been chasing me. What will happen to them if they realise where we are? They were hoping to take the reward for capturing me, y'know?"

"They were being paid anyway, it doesn't matter."

"It will be if they hang around here, then I'll never get to go outside again."

"I see, that is oppressing matter" Rai paused, his mind working. "Don't worry about that ok? Tomorrow, they'll no longer be a problem"

"Rai? What will you do?" Rei asked, worried about the glint in Rai's eyes. "You're not going to kill them are you?"

"Kill them?" Rai repeated, shocked at what Rei said and even more surprised at the wide eyed scared expression he wore 'What in the world would have made him think that?' "No, I was only planning to draw them out of town."

"D-draw them out?" Rei repeated with a breath of relief "How?"

"I'll them you moved onto the next town. We'll leave before daybreak."

"Wait, we? You mean you're going too?"

"Of course, if I stay it'll seem suspicious." Rai explained, feeling suspicious himself at Rei's strange behaviour. "I won't be able to stay here with you, but it'll let you live without worry from us."

"But why? If they ever find out-"

"Stop, it's okay" Rai smiled "It'll give me the chance of seeing this country for myself and who knows perhaps if things ever get that far then maybe I can see the world"

Rei began to laugh and yet Rai was completely oblivious as to why there was tears streaming down his face. "R-rei?"

"Hahaha… I'm sorry, brother I can't help it. It's just, just that we are so much more alike than we think" Rei laughed, unable to control his tears. "And the bounty?"

"There's nothing we can do about that and since the posters made of you with the bounty's price on your head are so old now, civilians probably wont be able to recognise you" Rai said, noticing how much he had changed, how much his little brother has grown. "You can relax, I promise this is an act out of the sake of an older brother"

"Rai… Thank you"

"You know these trees were their favourite, I can't believe you forgot" Rai said placing a hand on the trunk of the pastel yellow petal tree. "I thought they only grew at the High Court palace"

"They're calling it a palace now" Rei scoffed. "But you're right I've never seen them grow any where else. Hey Rai remember when we got into a fight over that toy?"

"Hahaha how long ago was that?" Rai laughed. "I can't believe you remember that. I can't believe I remember that"

"What about that the time…"

One by one, memories from their childhood was reminisced. The happy, sad and down right embarrassing, all of them were remembered. The two stayed like that, till late into the night.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Well that's that for Rai, he won't be back for a long time. And was anybody noticed how Rei's injured hand was been completely forgotten? If not, you do now. And how long was this chapter? But it's really sloppy too… forgive me. For the next few chapters it'll be working on the characters' background, just to give some understanding and coz I spent a lot of time thinking of it too. Please keep reading as I (hopefully) keep updating.


	8. Aftermath has a new beginning

Chapter eight

Where does the time go? Honestly, I think it's just slipping through my hands like collecting bugs with a container without a lid, or trying to drink soup with chopsticks. You just can't get a proper hold of it… Well there's my lame analogy for not updating soon enough… I hate school. Enjoy.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Rei woke up the next day and as expected his brother was no where to be seen. It was a strange feeling, Rei was the first to leave and now the tables have been turned and it was Rai who had left him. (AN: it sounds like they broke up…twice) Rei laid back into his pillow looking around the room. It seemed so plain, very little things filled the empty spaces, the only thing that filled up an entire wall was; a table, an empty closet and a hanging scroll that Max put up there after he changed rooms. Rei remembered back into his old room back 'home', it was filled with all sorts of things, but thinking back then he was only a child. None of those things were important anymore. He thought back to his first day in the house and now that he thought about it the house didn't seem as big as he had first thought. He got used to being in small rooms he had forgotten what it was like to sleep in a room as large as this.

Rei was content to fall back to sleep in the big comfy bed, but loud noises were coming from outside his room.

"Shhh, you guys are going to wake him."

"But we're almost done"

"What does that matter? You'll wake him up whether we're nearly finished or not"

"Brother you missed a spot"

"Where?"

"By the fang. See?"

Rei smiled to himself as he realised who the voices had belonged to. His heart began to beat faster when another voice suddenly pierced through the door.

"Max, Akito, Akira. What do you guys think you're doing?"

"Afternoon, Kai. We're painting" Akira's voice replied.

"I see that, but why are you guys doing that now?"

"Because we thought it would a nice gift for Rei, since he's not leaving us"

"Come on, Kai. You have to admit they've done a considerable job"

"See Tala, thinks its ok"

"But why is it a tiger? Shouldn't it be a kitten?"

A large amount of laughter burst of out from the other side of the door and slowly died.

Rei looked at the door with great curiosity and jumped slightly when it suddenly opened. Kai stood at the door, they both stared at each other before realising that they were staring. They turned their heads away, Kai looking to the side and Rei taking a sudden fascination of his feet.

"Rei, how are feeling today? Is you ankle feeling better?" Tala asked, pushing past Kai. "Shall I change the bandages now?"

"No, no it's fine. It feels a lot better now, thanks" Rei answered, quickly. Max hopped his way through and jumped onto Rei's bed. His blonde hair was as messy as ever and paint was smudged on his freckled face.

"Ne, Rei. Are you ok? You slept though all the morning again. You know you sure sleep a lot, but then again you probably went to sleep late. Were you up all night talking with that guy? Where is he anyway? I thought he would be with you" Max babbled, leaving no time for Rei to answer back. Neither Kai nor Tala noticed Rai's disappearance until Max mentioned him and now that they did a feeling of worry struck them. Rei noticed the strange exchange of looks between the two.

"It's ok. I know he won't tell anyone that I'm here" Rei said, quieting Max. "I trust him so believe me ok?"

Kai trusted Rei, but there was a feeling of uncertainty that hung in his chest.

"If you say so…" Max said. There was silence between the four until-

"Finished!" Akira rushed into the room, a big smile splashed across his half-covered face. "Come on guys, check it out"

Slowly the four went out of the room, Rei was shocked at the large amount of people that built up in front of his room. All the eyes focused on the door. Akito stood back to admire his and his brothers work.

A large white tiger bared its teeth and claws at them. Rei was surprised at how real it looked, its ferocity was reflected in its life-like golden eyes. It gave the feeling that was ready to attack and rip apart its prey.

"Wow…" was all Rei was able to manage. Everyone else was struck by it too and were giving their awe to the twins. When the crowd eventually died, Max remembered the promise made by Rei.

"Rei, let's go to the kitchen quickly. It's time for lunch already, you promised to cook for us as if you would cook for yourself" Max incoherently babbled. "Come on, let's go. Let's go!"

Rei was pushed down the hall before he had the chance to comprehend what had just happened. Kai watch Max and Rei disappear behind a corner.

"What just happened?" Kai asked, turning to Tala, who began to laugh at Kai's confused expression.

"I think he's just got stolen from you" Tala laughed, he then turned and walked to the smaller garden of lavender flowers. Kai just scratched his head in frustration and left.

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

In the kitchen Max intensively watching Rei prepare lunch, as much as he wanted to help, he couldn't because he was banned from doing anything in the kitchen. This rule was established after the mess he made earlier. So he stood by the doorway in anticipation.

"Ne, Rei how much longer is it going to be?" Max asked in a whiny voice.

"Well I only started so it may still take sometime" Rei said, looking up from chopping up the dead chicken. "You can wait outside while I cook" he suggested as he began to boil water.

Max felt slightly disappointed, but walked out the door anyway. Rei felt bad for kicking Max out of the kitchen, as he was returning to butchering the chicken, his eye caught something outside the window. Tala's red hair stood out in contrast with the purple flowers, he stood there staring.

'It's that feeling again.' Rei thought to himself. 'The feeling that something is missing'

Rei was busy watching the motionless Tala, he failed to notice a certain fluttering butterfly. Alice slowly crept behind Rei and blew lightly into his ear. Rei jump in fright, dropping the knife centimetres from his toes.

"A-alice! What are you-?"

"What? I could be asking you that, here's dear little ol' me thinking that you were busy cooking our lunch and when I come in you're to busy staring at Tala to even notice that your pot was boiling over" Alice commented in one breath. Sighing, Rei picked up the knife off the floor and removed some logs from under the pot. "Maybe we should keep the windows closed for the benefit of not burning down the house. What were you doing watching Tala anyway?"

"I don't know, sometimes I get this weird feeling that I can't explain…" Rei didn't know how to finish his sentence, there was no way how. Alice looked at Rei with half-closed eyes.

"It's called love, Rei" she stated.

"What? No way. It's not like that!" Rei yelled, putting marinated duck into the fire oven and slamming its door shut. "It's just whenever I see him smile or anything, it's like there's something missing. Like he's-"

"Lost something important and nothing he can do can get it back" Alice interrupted, she had her head turned to the floor and was playing with the hem of her skirt. "I see, I didn't know you could tell. To be honest I'm surprised, no one here has eyes as sharp as yours."

Alice paused and walked towards the window. She watched as Tala watered the flowers and as he picked one from the ground.

"What you're seeing, Rei, is an unamendable broken-heart. At least that what they say" Alice sighed as she leant against the windows. She was quiet, thinking deeply. "I don't think I should be telling you this, you know what forget about it ok?"

"No I want to know what happened" Rei said, without looking up from cutting vegetables. "I know that I shouldn't pry, but…"

Alice scoffed lightly. "Geez, you two are the same. But didn't curiosity kill the cat?"

"Alice… I'm not a cat."

"You're right, you're a neko-jin" Alice smiled at Rei's annoyed face. "Fine, I'll tell you" Alice took a moment to pause before starting her story.

"While we were in the 'service', there was someone Tala loved very much. I don't remember a day when the two weren't together, they were inseparable. It felt like the two would be together forever" Alice turned her head back to the small garden, Tala had already left and was no where in sight. "They said it was love at first sight, hmph how cheesy. They lived in their own world where nothing mattered. When we fought, they fought to protect each other. They never left each others sight"

Alice paused again, playing with her hair, lightly tugging at her curls. "Due to some 'events', they became separated. He sacrificed himself to save Tala, using his strength to protect his beloved till the end"

"He?" Rei asked, an unsettling feeling was rising inside, but his confusion of who 'he' was overwhelmed him.

"Did I not mention that? Tala's lover was a man" Alice answered Rei's one word question. Rei stood one the spot, his mind processing the sudden information. "If you're going to let this little bit of information destroy your friendship with Tala then you're better off going back from wherever you came from." Alice stated when she noticed the silence.

"No it's not that. It just it's a little overwhelming, that's all" Rei answered, going back to his cooking. 'Just now I thought that he was the same as me, why?'

"What's with that face? You're going to get wrinkles." Alice pointed to her forehead, Rei realised that his eyebrows had become knitted together and his face full of angry confusion. "At least you found out the nice way, unlike Kai and me"

"R-really? How did you find out?" Rei asked, rubbing his forehead.

"We caught them kissing and touching and doing other stuff." She bluntly answered, her face calm as if she was having a normal conversation. "They were all over each other, it was a wonder why we didn't notice before"

"I-I see…" Rei mumbled, more surprised at Alice's casual attitude rather than her answer. "What about everyone else? They were okay for that kind of relationship?"

"Well Tala was nervous at first, he didn't know what to tell them. He seemed so out of character, it was hilarious. He didn't want to tell them but then someone told him that there's nothing wrong with loving another person, every person is different. The feeling is the same so it makes no difference who it is."

"Did Kai say that?"

"…No, it was someone else. A person close and dear to me, to all of us, she taught me and the others so much, I'll never be able to forget her. But her little speech to Tala was a little in vain, it was the first time any of us had even heard of the word love. So everyone was happy about it rather than anything else. Even after all that, I still don't understand it."

They both became silent, the only noise that came from the kitchen was the boiling pots and the occasional metal to wood from Rei's slow chopping.

"A long time ago someone told me that love is something you understand for yourself, no one can teach it to you but you. If you get a hundred people and ask them "What is love?" you'll get a hundred different answers. It's the same nonetheless, but its meaning is for you to decide." Rei turned to Alice with a bright smile. "No one goes through life without it, one day you'll overturn the stone that hides your love and find its meaning for yourself"

Alice looked at Rei with wide eyes, her purple eyes began to swell in tears, and she put her hands to her face and cried. "Those words… they're the same…as she told me."

Rei felt horrible for making Alice cry, he didn't know what to do, he didn't expect something like this to happen. He limped over to her and hesitantly placed a hand onto her shoulder. After a while, Alice lifted her head up and wiped her face. She walked to the door and bowed.

She stood up and smiled "I never expected to hear those words again, it won't make much difference but I'm glad I did. Thank you"

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

Max sat the table, his bright blue eyes shining at the food prepared in front of him.

"Wow Rei. It looks so good!" he cheered, grabbing a bowl of rice and eating everything he could reach. Akito eyed the potatoes in the soup, his brother stuffing his face with meat.

"Hey the chicken isn't so bad either" Brooklyn said, stealing the chicken. "I wonder how the duck tastes…"

"I guess that means I can cook right?" Rei asked, watching everyone eat.

"Yeah, this is great" Max said through a full mouth, food flying everywhere.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Max. It's disgusting." Tala said, edging away from the blonde. "You must have cooked a lot for yourself huh? I guess being on the run doesn't give you much option for a restaurant. How about you Kai, you haven't said a word yet"

Kai was silent, the food was good but there was nothing he could say. Max had already stolen the words from him, in a constant babble. "Ah, yeah. It's good" was all he could manage.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

I finally got Rei to cook, stupid lazy cat and his story plot and character development. I hope no one was too annoyed with the people of the characters past, there's a reason to that I think. But chances are it'll stay that way till they're names and characters are needed in the story. Please be patient with me, time seems to be going too fast and I'm stuck on the slow motion button.

P.S readers of my other fanfic 'The Warm smile' (abbreviated nick name) will be put on hiatus until I figure out how to set up the big finale. Sorry!


	9. Afternoon Kai Omake

Wow how fast has time gone and I'm only up to chapter nine? -_-'…

Ruuka has been introduced into this chapter. But I don't think he would be appearing a lot afterwards. A little bit more Brooklyn and we follow Kai today too. This chapter has very little to do with the story line, but I wanted to write it anyway, please just think of it as a omake.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

After lunch, Kai took a walk into the streets of the town. As he moved swiftly through the town, people looked his way. Either eyeing his phoenix embroidered cloak, or the markings on his cheeks. He got annoyed as a group of girls giggled and squealed as he past them, whispering to each other as he past the tea shop.

'Every single day. Don't they have anything better to do?' he thought. He heard hurried footsteps behind him, he turned realising that he that he should have kept walking. One of the girls from the tea shop was running after him, waving her hand like a maniac and shouting at him.

"Hey, you! Why don't you join me and my friends over there? We would so love to talk with you and stuff" she called from a meter away. She had mud brown hair which only reached past her shoulders and her brown eyes were even muddier. She walked up to Kai and grabbed his arm and, despite his protests, proceeded to drag him back to her eagerly waiting friends. "My name's Shigeru. What's yours?"

"What does it matter? Let me go" Kai yelled impatiently and yanked his arm from Shigeru's hold. He turned to walk away, but Shigeru's friends had come and surrounded him.

"Hey, don't leave. We wanna talk. I'm Hinata" the short blonde haired girl said.

"Yeah, I bet we could be great friends" said one with long blue hair.

"Please stay, we don't bite" giggled the girl with orange hair pulled up into pig-tails. "Unless you want us to"

Kai was very annoyed by then, the loud giggling girls getting on his nerves.

"As I said: Let me go!" Kai yelled, pushing Hinata away and walked in a fast pace away from them. The four were left stunned and surprised at Kai's actions. Their crying and frustrated yelling were heard by everyone at least 30 metres away from them. Kai turned a corner, thinking about finding a new route for his walks. His annoyance and slight anger made him unaware at the person creeping up to him.

"Geez, I didn't realise you were that popular" Kai jumped at the sudden voice, his basic reflex automatically made his hand swing at the owner of the voice, which made contact.

"Shit, Brooklyn. What the hell was that for?" he asked looking at the orange hair person slouched on the ground clutching his face.

"I could ask the same thing. Fuck that hurts" Brooklyn cried, rubbing his cheek. "And I was going to a challenge today too. Those idiots will laugh at me if I turn up with a bruise on my face"

"You're going to another fight? How many is that now?" Kai asked, with a slight hint of iniquity. "Idiot, how the hell do you get into these things?"

"It's Ruuka's fault this time" Brooklyn whined. "This guy's girlfriend fell in love with him and the guy's really mad because the chick broke up with him and-"

Kai held his hand up to stop Brooklyn from going into further detail. "Ok, I asked how, I didn't need a background story. By the way, why are _you_ fighting? You just said Ruuka was the problem here"

"Well, you know the guy. He's not into fighting as much anymore. Not since then" Brooklyn answered. "So he asked me to take his place"

"You enjoy getting to these fights, don't you?" Kai groaned, his hand connected to his face. "I wonder how that guy trained you"

"Hey, Coach trained me just fine! Don't start talking badly about him just because I do stupid things" Brooklyn yelled angrily, startling the passersby.

"So you admit doing stupid things" Kai chuckled under his breath. "If these fights are so stupid, why do you continue fighting?"

"Because if I don't I'll lose my connection with him. All that training we did together would be lost. I'd have no longer meaning for it" Brooklyn said quietly, his blue eyes staying on the ground. "That's why, so I have reason to keep these memories. Isn't the same for you, the reason you wear that cloak"

Kai looked into the streets, watching the people walk by. Silence crept in between the two and it stayed that way until-

"The reason I wear this is different to why you fight. It isn't to keep my memories, but something else"

"What?"

"Pride, I guess" Kai looked to the sky, the endless blue made him feel like he could touch it, but he left his hands by his sides. "The phoenix is a creature that can live for 500 centuries. When it dies it raises itself from its ashes, giving it a new life. At least that's what I was told, do you remember the person who made me this? She said that I can rise from my ashes time and time again, I'll never fall or give up not until my life goes out"

"Heh it suits you well" Brooklyn smiled and stood up straight, stretching his back. "Well I better get going. Don't want to be late for my challenge"

"Geez, your still going to fight" Kai sighed. Brooklyn laughed, his maniac grin on his face, it had Kai worried.

"You wanna watch? How long has it been since you saw or were in a fight?" Brooklyn asked with a slight sneer.

"You're taking me with you?"

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

"Brooklyn! Thought you'd never turn up. Where's that bastard Ruuka, did he get scared and ran away?"

"Nope, he doesn't think you're worth it"

Brooklyn and an unwilling Kai walk down to the river banks where six people awaited the arrival of their challenge, burning to see blood. Kai took one look at the group, one of them being a girl with blonde hair and tanned skin, he sighed feeling sorry.

"Hey, where's that bastard Ruuka?! I wanted to fight him, not you, Brooklyn?" yelled who Kai assumed was their leader. "I want to make him pay for stealing my girl"

"Don't say that about my beloved Ruuka!" the girl yelled, hitting the leader across the head. "He's much more better then you are. And I am _not your_ girl!"

"What do you like about him so much? What does he have that I don't?" he yelled.

'Well, for starters Ruuka doesn't have a body of a gorilla like you, he doesn't have a brain like one either' Kai thought to himself, looking at the monkey-like leader.

"Well, for starters Ruuka doesn't have a gorilla body like you and he doesn't a brain of one either" Brooklyn yelled, laughing.

'Did he just read my mind?' Kai yelled in his head, a bewildered face on. Brooklyn turned his head to Kai and stuck his tongue out.

"Grrr, how dare you? Get your ass down so I can kick it!" yelled the leader, taking serious offence to Brooklyn's comment. The girl was shrieking in laughter, bending over and slapping her knees.

"It's true, it's so true. Ruuka's body is so much sexier than yours, he's smart and gorgeous and pretty, he's voice is so cool and his hair so awesome and…" around this time the girl had wondered into her own wonderland, talking endlessly about Ruuka. Her eyes even became glittery.

"Er, Brooklyn?" Kai hesitantly asked, in hope for an answer to what has happening.

"Yeah, I know. She was like this the last time too" Brooklyn sighed, sitting down on the grass. "You do not want to see her when Ruuka is here, but it looks like you're going to anyway"

Kai turned around to see that Ruuka was indeed heading towards the two sitting and the river bank, ignoring to the group of six squabbling amongst each other. Kai remember bits of the description the girl made of Ruuka and tried to see what part matched up with what. It was like putting pieces of a puzzle with the wrong puzzle. Ruuka was indeed much better looking then the gorilla in comparison. With his tall thin body, sharp piercing eyes, short hair with red tips and slightly boyish handsome face, it was no wonder why the girl wanted to leave her ex-boyfriend for him. It was a wonder why she went out with the gorilla man in the first place.

"It doesn't look like you've fought with them yet, Brooklyn. What's wrong have you decided not to this time?" Ruuka asked in a quiet, yet husky voice.

"They're getting worked up without me, its fine they'll fizzle out some time." Brooklyn replied, watching the four gang members hold back their leader away from the girl.

"Kai, what are you doing here?" Ruuka asked, noticing the two-toned blue head. "It's unusual for you to be here in this part of town."

"Doesn't it really matter looks like they're done fighting" Brooklyn said standing up.

"Ruuka!" the girl suddenly came rushing to them, stopping only inches away from the black clothed Ruuka, took a few steps back. "Can you believe this brute? He keeps going on about how I'm still his girl even though I belong to you now. And-"

"You don't. I never claimed you as mine, your tilting at windmills" Ruuka interrupted.

"What? Ruuka, but I left him for you." The girl looked closed to tears now.

"But that does not mean I would consider you as mine" Ruuka said, without batting an eyelash. "I don't understand what your mind tells you, but it takes more than that to be with someone in a relationship"

"We can try, just go out with me and I promise you'll fall for me and then I can really be yours. Please, just once alright." She asked him again, almost practically begging, leaving Kai and the others confused about what to do.

"No, no matter how many times you ask or how many times we 'go out', we won't make it work" Ruuka replied his voice still calm and quiet. "Besides, one-sided love always end in tragedy"

"But you refuse all the girls who ask you, you push them away, but you laughed at me. I thought that meant you liked me." The girl yelled stamping her feet.

"I was only merely laughing at you stupidity" Ruuka chuckled a cruel smile appearing on his face. "I've never seen someone as stupid as you, you hopeless chase of one-sided love makes me want to laugh until I can't breathe. Stick with that guy there, his gorilla body and brain goes well with your monkey looks and attitude."

The girl burst into tears, her loud wailing made Kai's ears hurt. The gorilla and his men were trying to calm her down, while giving Ruuka threatening looks.

"No ones talks to my Mei Mei like that. Take this bastard!" the gorilla swung his fist at Ruuka who dodged it. He swung again and Ruuka dodged that too.

Swing.

Dodge.

Swing.

Dodge.

(Rinse and repeat)

"I have had enough, Brooklyn your turn" Ruuka said, turning his back and tagging Brooklyn.

"Alright, here I go" Brooklyn cracked his knuckles and landed a punch onto one of the henchmen.

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

"You got rather sloppy over the years, Brooklyn" Kai said looking at the fallen men.

"Shut up, you can't get any better if your opponents are as weak as this" Brooklyn spat, kicking the gorilla's head.

The girl was still sobbing by the end of it, Ruuka standing impatiently as she talked through her sobs.

"I don't -hic- get it, why -hic- don't you -hic- want to date -hic- any of us -hic-" she said her sentence broken by her hiccups.

"Because I'm not interested in any of you that way, if you want a lover ask someone else, but not me"

"Why? Are we not good enough for you?"

"She wants a clear answer, Ruuka. Otherwise she won't give up" Brooklyn said annoyed. Ruuka looked at Kai, then back to the girl and sighed. Ruuka couldn't think of a proper reason not to be interested with the girls of this town, he looked at Kai again and got and idea.

"Well, you see the reason why is sort of complicated" Ruuka said walking towards Kai and placing his arm over Kai's shoulder. "But in truth, I'm in love with this guy."

"What?!" Kai, Brooklyn, the girl and one of the henchmen that regained consciousness yelled.

"Kai, Ruuka… I never knew…" Brooklyn said crying in shock.

"It's not true! Ruuka, I don't know what you intend to do but-" Kai yelled, trying to get out of Ruuka's grasp.

"You're lying, there's no way you could be-be gay. I know you like women" the girl yelled in disbelief, pointing at Ruuka.

"You're just tilting at windmills again. Here let me prove it to you" Ruuka chuckled. Kai didn't know what to do, all he knew was that something bad was going to happen. Ruuka drew in closer to Kai's confused face and whispered "Please, forgive me". He put his lips onto Kai's, giving him a mouth to mouth kiss for everyone around to see. Kai was confused and froze up in shock. Every else seemed to have the same reaction. Ruuka withdrew away from Kai and looked at the girl with narrowed eyes. "See? That should have been more than enough prove that I'm not into women"

But when he looked around everyone seemed to have been turned to stone, paralysed in astonishment and severe disbelief.

"No way…I…I…don't believe it. I refuse to believe it, Ruuka is not gay! No!" the girl ran away, tears falling from her eyes like a waterfall. As she ran, her ex-boyfriend and his lackeys ran after her. Ruuka looked back at Kai and Brooklyn. Kai was still in a frozen state, his face unchanged. Brooklyn was crying to but in a comical way.

"Don't worry, man. Even if you're that way I'll still be your friend" he cried, holding hands with Ruuka.

"What are you talking about? I only did that to get rid of her" Ruuka said, walking away. "I'll meet you back at the house"

Brooklyn turned around to look at Kai, who still seemed to be frozen in place. "What are we going to do about him? He's still in shock"

Ruuka sighed, slightly tilting his head, he walked back down to Kai and said "What a fool. Listen Kai, that had no meaning to it. There was no feeling, no emotion or sign of affection. Just pretend it was a dog that bit you or something, it might as well have been. Without the love it's as good as one"

"Ruuka…" Kai was beginning to return to a more human state. "You still did it any way"

"But you told me to get rid of an enemy is to hit them where it hurts. I'm willing to bet that it did" Ruuka smiled.

"Hurt me or her?" Kai asked, now feeling angry.

Ruuka just smiled and walked off.

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

Kai and Brooklyn were walking back to the house. Kai still felt odd after the events earlier.

"Still in shock?" Brooklyn asked, looking to the side at Kai. "Get over it, he's used me a lot of times to get rid of girls"

"It's not the same thing. Why did he need to do that for?" Kai groaned, his back and shoulders slouched.

"Revenge maybe. You know he never really got over that whole… thing with her."

"Why revenge? He apologised be fore he… he…"

"Kissed you? Geez, you can't even say it" Brooklyn said with slight impatience. "Are you sure he's not apologising to you? He could have been asking forgiveness from someone else"

"Perhaps, he did really love her"

"I know you probably can't, or anyone else but forget about that. Isn't that the reason you brought us to this country?" Brooklyn sighed. "Our bodies maybe here but our minds keep wondering back to that place"

"Wasn't Tala the one that said that?" Kai asked at the unlike Brooklyn statement.

"Yeah"

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Why did Ruuka do such a thing? I thought this was supposed to be KaiXRei… how the hell did this happen? Frankly sometimes I don't understand how my mind works. Not to mention the time between updates seem to become longer and longer. Maybe I need a vacation.

I'm also making a poll for an introduction of a character involving the twins:

Should or should I not add in Lind?

Yes, put him in, I think he might a good asset for the story and I've read Air gear manga so I know how he might fit into the story.

Or

No, don't bother, your just making things difficult and your slow enough on your updates without having to worry about another character.

Or

I don't care, do what you want, just keep up dating

Or

I don't care, just keep updating. And when are you going to update your other story?

Please make your reply with one of those options and this is not an elaborate way of getting reviews. Sankyuu.


	10. Max's story, Kai's truth

Hi it's me again. You thought I gave up on this story huh? Well, I'm sorry for not updating for so long. I've had hardly time to think, let alone fanfic. I hope this ok for you guys, this one is a little longer so I hope that's ok. Well read and enjoy…I hope.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Chappie ten

The sun rose high into the sky as Max walked down the paths of the house.

"I wonder if Rei's up yet" he said to himself. He hopped his way back into the rooms, giving a smile to the passersby.

"Max, what are you up to?" Ruuka asked as Max passed his room.

"Just going to check on Rei" Max answered brightly.

"You mean the guy Kai picked up a while ago?" Ruuka said, thinking. "Come to think of it I haven't exactly seen him before"

"What about the time Rei was going to be taken away by his brother? Weren't you part of the group that help let him stay?" Max asked, trying to remember back.

"I don't remember such a thing" Ruuka replied. "Let me see him. I want to met Rei"

"That's not much of a problem, but I don't know if he's awake yet" Max chuckled lightly, leaving an awkward silence between the two.

"Let's go wake him up then" Ruuka said, stepping out of his room. Max smiled and continued hopping along the path to Rei's room while Ruuka walked behind, following.

The two soon reached the room with the white tiger, without knocking Max opened the door, poking his head inside before waltzing in. Rei was still tucked up in bed, sleeping, unaware of the two intruders.

"Aw, he's still sleeping" Max sighed disappoint. Ruuka looked over the large bed and took a look at Rei, taking in the features of the person that had recently caused so much trouble.

"He's cute, no wonder why Kai took him in" Ruuka said. He sat on the bed and looked around the room. "It sure is really plain in here"

"I know, it's my room"

Ruuka and Max jumped at the sudden voice. Rei sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"Max what are you doing here? If you're hungry you could just go out to eat you know" Rei said, trying not to fall asleep again. He looked at Ruuka, unable to register who he was. "Ah, you're…"

"Hello there, Rei, I'm Ruuka" He said smiling brightly. "I do believe this is the first time we've met"

Rei felt like he couldn't say anything, the sudden shock of seeing someone like Ruuka so suddenly made him forget all speech.

"What's the matter, Rei? Cat got your tongue?" Max said, jumping onto the bed. After staring at Ruuka a couple of minutes more, Rei finally able to speak.

"Sorry, this is rude but, is that natural? I've never seen anyone with hair like that before" Rei asked pointing at Ruuka's red tips. Ruuka merely chuckled in response.

"One would only think" Ruuka said as a reply. "And what of Kai's hair? Isn't his also two coloured?"

"It's two toned, not quite the same as yours" Rei stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I could say the same to yours, if I hadn't known you were a boy first I would have thought you were a girl" Ruuka said. Rei remembered that he had let his hair out the night before and that it spread messily everywhere.

"Rei, Ruuka can you guys stop flirting? I'm hungry" Max bored voice whined.

"Where did you learn to say that?" Ruuka said, patting Max's head, Rei too taken aback to say anything.

"Alice and Tala told me" Max giggled innocently.

"I'm not surprised" Ruuka laughed, standing up. "Well then, I'll leave you to it. I'll see you later, Rei"

Rei was quiet as Ruuka left his room, watching the strange colours of his head bob away.

"There something wrong, Rei?" Max asked, Rei had nearly forgotten about what Max wanted.

"Nothing, I guess I'll go make breakfast then" Rei said.

"Don't you mean lunch, it's already early afternoon" Max said.

"…huh?"

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

"Why do you always wake me up for the sake of eating?" Rei said. "I'm sure you must be sick of my cooking"

"Nope" Max said cheekily.

"Why not? Everyone else is fine with still going out to eat"

"But I like Rei's cooking" Max said. "How about cooking something really nice today, like a feast?"

"How about he cooks something he wants?" an icy voice said from the doorway.

"Hi, Kai" Max said.

"Maybe we can get something for dessert?" Rei asked as Kai took a seat. At that moment, Akira poked his head into the kitchen, he took it out and yelled;

"Akito, he's over here"

He walked into the kitchen followed by Akito.

"Hey, Max" Akira cheered. They stuck out a large pile of books out. "Look! They're the new comic series by your favourite author, we got them before anyone else from Tora-nekoi"

"Awesome, I didn't even know the new series had come out yet" Max squealed.

"Hehe" Akira laughed. "We got them sent especially for you"

"Because today is the day that Kai found Max" Akito said.

"Found him?" Rei said.

"It is, isn't?" Max said. "Do you want to know, Rei? I don't mind if you know"

"But that sort of thing is…" Rei started.

"I found him near a river, he was unconscious and we took him in" Kai said, before Rei could say anymore. "It was about when I was around 9, so that would have been… 8 years ago"

"I hit my head pretty hard, I probably had amnesia or something" Max said. "I really don't remember too much before that at all"

"There's gotta be something you remember" Rei said, draining egg noddles in the sink.

"I do remember something" Max said. "I remember vanilla and calla lilies"

"Vanilla and calla lilies, that's odd" Rei said, placing vegetables and meat on top of the noodles, which he had already separated into different bowls.

"Well, Max himself is a pretty odd person" Akito said. "Plus calla lilies don't grow in Tori-fushicho"

"If they don't grow in Tori-fushicho then how would Max remember what they were called?" Rei asked, throwing down bowls of noodles in front of everyone.

"I read it in Tala's book" Max said, picking up a pair of chopsticks. "It said they grew in Hachurui-kame but I don't know why I was in Tori-fushicho in the first place for Kai to find me"

"You don't look like you came from Tori-fushicho, anyways" Rei pointed out as he put eggs into a boiling pot of water. "Maybe you could have been born in Hachurui-kame?"

"Maybe I could have been a prince who's carriage had been attacked by bandits and got away as he jumped from the moving carriage and lost his memory, or something" Max said his hands moving about as he talk. Rei and Max laughed at the joke.

"Well there went that story plot" Akito said, throwing a comic book away.

"But really, can anyone imagine Max as a king?" Akira asked.

"We'd all be doomed" Kai said in a monotone voice.

"That's so mean" Max whined. "Well I think the whole world would be destroyed if Kai was ever a ruler"

"You'd be the first to die, Max" Kai said with an unwavering voice.

"Oh, how scary" Max giggled.

Rei sat down and took a bite from his lunch. 'Shit too much sauce'

"Is there something wrong, Rei?" Akira asked taking a bowl.

"No nothing" Rei said, eating more of his over-sauced noodles.

"Max weren't you going to do something today?" Akito asked picking up a pair of chopsticks.

"Like what?" Max asked. "A party?"

"No more parties" Kai said in a definitive voice.

"What?"

"Let's say there's some trauma from the last party we had" Akira said.

"Trauma?"

"Last time someone had a birthday, nearly everyone got drunk and a small fire was lit" Akito said.

"A small fire?!" Kai yelled. "Half the garden was burnt away!"

"It's not like anyone was taking care of those flowers anyway and Tala's garden was safe" Akira said.

"Though the same can't be said about Alice's hydrangeas" Akito commented.

"Oh yeah…" Max said. "I wonder if she's still bummed out by those"

"Just be happy your trees didn't burnt down, Kai" Akito said. "Next time I might want to play with fire in the inner garden"

"Like hell I'm gonna let you near an open flame again" Kai said. He looked over to the stove that was still boiling eggs, he stood up and extinguished the flame.

"I've been meaning to ask; where did those trees come from?" Rei asked, turning on the stove's fire again. "I've only seen them grow at the manor"

"They were a gift from someone we knew" Kai said. Rei looked at the faces of the other three, all of them had turned gloomy.

"I'm sorry. It's was something I shouldn't have asked" Rei said.

"It's ok, she said she took them from her own home to remember someone there too" Kai said. "I just planted them because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time"

"From her own home?" Rei repeated. Kai gasped lightly. "Doesn't that mean she would have lived in the High's Court manor at some point?"

Kai was silent for a few moments then-

"Rei, I'm sorry I don't think I can talk about this" Kai said, standing from the table.

"Kai…" Rei looked at his half-eaten bowl of food. "Dammit, why can't I keep my mouth shut?"

"He'll be fine, he's just not good at handling things with the past" Akira said, smiling awkwardly. "It's something he doesn't like being brought up"

"The hypocrite, he brought us here to forget our past and he can't let it go" Akito said standing up as well.

"Akito where are you going?" Akira asked watching his brother find the door. Akito walked out leaving Akira, Max and Rei behind.

"Will he be ok?" Max asked.

"Why do you ask?" Akira asked looking at Max with a confused expression. As soon as he finished talking a definite thump came from down the hall. "I see…"

"Huh?"

"Hopefully he won't get too hurt" Akira said eating. "He just has to stick his right arm out and he'll be fine"

"Stick his right arm out?" Rei said.

"So he can feel for the walls and anything else he might hit" Akira said.

"Why? What for?" Rei asked, still confused.

"Have you not noticed? Me and Akito are blind in one eye" Akira said, lifting his fringe that covered his left eye. Rei looked at it, it was a milky white colour unlike his amber-brown right eye.

"I didn't know" Rei said, he bit his lip. "Now I feel stupid for not knowing all this. I must have been insensitive. I'm sorry"

"Don't say sorry" Max said, smiling. "And you're not stupid, Rei. I think you're really smart"

Rei chuckled lightly.

"Thanks"

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

Akito walked with his right arm stuck out while carry a large thin rectangular object in his left. With his good eye he looked around for Kai. He wasn't in his room and he wasn't by the inner garden either.

"Hey Akito, where's Akira?" Alice asked, upon seeing the single bobbing blue head. "You're all bruised"

"He's with Max and Rei. Can you tell me where Kai is?" Akito asked.

"I think he's by the pond, why?" Alice said.

"I just need to talk to him" Akito replied. He turned and walked toward the back of the house. "Thanks I'll talk to you later"

Alice watched Akito walk away, she caught a glimpse of what Akito was holding. It was a painting of a girl with long red hair and bright purple eyes. She was smiling kindly in the painting.

"Th-that's…" Alice gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth. "Satsuki…"

Akito found the pond and Kai. Kai was squatting by the edge.

"Kai" Akito called out.

"Akito, what happened, you're hurt?" Kai said standing straight. He saw the painting. "Akito…?"

"Before you were being rude to Rei, even though he's told you about his past, you haven't said anything about yours" Akito said. "You even told him about Max"

"There was no point telling him" Kai said.

"Rei asked and you didn't reply" Akito said.

"He didn't ask"

"It didn't matter whether he asked directly or not, you keep everything to yourself it's not fair to everyone else" Akito said, a small tear line falling down his cheek. "You told us to live away from our time in Tori-fushicho but you're the only one who is still held back by it"

Akito held out the painting for Kai see.

"Everyone still misses her, I don't think we will stop missing her, but you're the only one who can't smile at the happy memories we had" Akito said. "She told us to live-"

"I know what she said. I know what Satsuki said. It still doesn't change the fact that she's dead"

"And that doesn't change the fact that _you're _alive. Kai listen to yourself, look at yourself, it's almost like you stopped living as well" Akito said, crying. "When was the last time you smiled truly from the bottom of your heart?"

"Aki-Akito… what are you trying to do?" Kai asked.

"To open your eyes"

Kai stared at the painting for awhile. He remembered about the time she arrived to the Hiwatari estate. How she befriended everyone and became their mentor, how she became important to them, how her cold her hand became and how she drew her last breath.

"What do you want me to do?" Kai sighed, putting his hand on the painting and putting it down.

"Live"

Kai sighed again and smiled. "Alright"

"Hey Kai and Akito are here" came a voice. Kai and Akito looked in the direction of the voice, Max, Akito and Rei were walking towards them.

"What are you guys doing here?" Akito asked, trying to hide the painting.

"I wanted to show Rei and Akira my new turtle" Max said, hopping to the pond.

"I didn't know there was a pond here" Rei said.

"Here look, look!" Max said, he held his hands out and inside was a little turtle. "Isn't it cute?"

"Very cute" Akira said, poking it. "Kai did you get this for him?"

"Yeah, I though he might like it" Kai said. "But it looks like I'm the one who's going to end up taking care of it"

"Nuh-uh, I promise I'll take good care of Draciel" Max said.

"Draciel?"

"It's his name" Max said, smiling brightly. "How do you like it, Draciel?"

Rei chuckled lightly as Max squealed in delight. He turned and looked at Kai.

"Hey Kai. I'm sorry about before, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or be insensitive. I'm sorry" Rei apologised bowing his head. A hand connected with his head and his hair was ruffled roughly. "Kai?"

"Don't bow your head to me anymore. If I make you feel like that again just hit me" Kai said. "And I'm sorry, Rei"

Rei looked at Kai and smiled. Though no one else saw it Kai smiled back.

"Akito what are you doing with that painting?" Akira asked, pointing at it.

"Nothing important" Akito said.

"Can I see it?" Rei asked. He took it from Akito's hands and looked at it. Rei's reaction wasn't like anyone thought it would have been. "Sa-Satsuki? Why do you have a painting of Satsuki?"

"You knew her?" Akira asked.

"She was like an older sister to me" Rei said, his knees buckling. "We used to play together all the time with Rai and Ira. Those trees… are from the manor. They were the seeds she took when she left"

Rei was crying by now, looking at the painting of someone he had been so closed to.

"Rei…" Kai tried to console the crying figure but all he could do was watch.

"You said she was someone you 'knew', not 'know' so that means she… No, it can't be true, Satsuki is not, she's not…?" Rei looked at the four searching for an answer. But he realised the answer quickly enough when no one answered. "Shit…"

Akito took back the painting and Rei covered his face with his hands. Suddenly Kai picked up Rei by the waist and lifted him up onto his shoulder.

"Kai!"

Kai didn't say anything he just walked back into the house, taking the crying Rei along with him. Kai took Rei back to his room, he opened the sliding door open and dropped Rei onto the bed. Rei grabbed his pillow and cried into it. Kai sat down onto the bed and sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry for crying out like this, I must look ridiculous" Rei said after a while, he wiped his face from his tears.

"No it's alright, we all cried for her too" Kai said. "So seeing you cry is not as ridiculous as you think"

"Thanks" Rei sniffed. He sat up and leaned against wall next to Kai, while still his face into his pillow. "I wonder if Rai and Ira knows"

"If Rai knew don't you think he would have told you?" Kai asked. He reached his hand and began to pat Rei on the head.

"What are you doing?" Rei asked, without lifting his head.

"Don't you like it?" Kai said. "I assumed if you knew Satsuki you'd be ok with something like this"

"It's not that" Rei said, he could feel the beating of his heart going faster, but he didn't want to say anything else. "It feels like I'm being treated like a little kid again"

Kai chuckled a little and kept his hand moving across Rei's head. For a while they were silent and no one disturbed them. The sun even seemed to be setting down a bit and neither of them moved, that is until Rei slipped from the wall and onto Kai's lap.

'He's asleep?' Kai thought, looking down at the sleeping kitten. Rei eyes were still red and Kai wiped away whatever tears were left. 'So cute'

Kai, just like a few days ago, without realising it he had brought his lips to Rei's forehead. He gently placed a kissed onto Rei. Rei murmured a bit and Kai had noticed what he had done. Kai felt his face go red and he looked out the window in embarrassment.

"…What am I doing?"

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Well I hope it was alright. I felt like I've done a half-assed job on this but I promise that my writing will be better next time round. So please put up with me and continue reading.

Sankyuu~


	11. You only realised it now?

I'm sorry please be patient with me. Nothing like writers block to realise how much of a crap writer you are.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

When Rei woke up the sun still in the sky and he was resting on something that wasn't his pillow. Slowly he sat up and looked at whatever he had his head on. He nearly fell off the bed when he saw Kai's sleeping face.

"Wha-wha-wha-what the-?"

Rei climbed off his bed and cowered on the floor by the side of the bed. He peered over the side and stared at the sleeping Kai.

"Why is-?"

Suddenly Rei remembered why he and Kai were in his room.

"Satsuki…It's all my fault" Rei cried, tears streaking his cheeks again. "It's all my fault, it's all my fault. It's my fault, it's my fault-"

"Stop that, it makes you look pathetic"

A hand reached out and ruffled Rei's hair. He looked up and saw Kai towering over him.

"Kai…"

"Satsuki's death was not your fault. The only person to blame would be me-"

"Kai!"

"Or my grandfather. Rei, you can't be blame for what happened" Kai said, looking at Rei directly in his eyes. "I wasn't strong enough to protect the people that were important to me. You have done nothing wrong"

Rei shook his head and wiped his tears.

"That's not true, it was my fault she had to go to Tori-fushicho because I was a fool" Rei said. "I didn't know that such a small mistake would cause a war"

"A war?"

"Because there was a disagreement and Satsuki had to be sent away…and…and-"

Rei stopped talking as Kai threw his arms around him.

"Enough stop it, just stop ok?"

Rei hugged Kai back and buried his face into Kai's shoulder. The two stayed like that until the sun set and Max walked in on them.

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

Max skipped joyfully as he, Alice, Kai, Tala, the twins, Brooklyn, Ruuka and Rei walked down the streets to a hopefully not so busy restaurant.

"Did you kiss Rei again?" Alice asked Kai, quietly.

"No!" Kai said as he turned red. "And I've never kissed him"

"But you two were cuddling together before, right?" Alice snickered.

"I was just comforting him, like I had to when everyone else was crying" Kai retorted.

"Only difference is that you like him" Alice said. Kai said nothing and went red.

"Hey, let's go here" Max said pointing to a restaurant. It was almost empty with just three tables occupied.

"Looks fine to me" Rei said, walking in. Kai followed but soon regretted stepping inside. There was a squeal and four girls came running up to him.

"What the-?"

At once before any one else knew what was happening, all four girls began to talk at the same time. Kai backed away remembering who they were.

"Hi it's nice to meet you again"

"I knew we'd see each other again"

"Before you were so _shy_, we didn't get to talk properly"

"Come sit down at our table"

Kai couldn't answer to any of what was said, he was resisting the urge to runaway.

"You know these girls?" Alice asked.

"Somewhat" Kai whispered back.

"They were harassing him before" Brooklyn said, smiling and laughing.

"Who are you?" The blue haired one asked Alice. She pointed her index finger at her in an almost threatening way.

"For now I'll be no one and let this poor bastard fight on his own" Alice said walking away. "I'm hungry"

"She's gone now let's have some fun" said the blonde one. She tugged at Kai's cloak, forcing him to their table.

"Hey let me go" Kai yelled.

"Aren't you going to help him?" Rei asked, as the rest of the others sat down with him.

"No, let him get out of this himself" Ruuka said.

"I don't wanna get on those girls' bad side" Brooklyn said.

"We would probably cause more trouble for him" Akira said. "Why don't you go yourself?"

"Cause women are scary" Rei said. He looked over where Kai was being forced to sit, the brown haired girl had her arms wrapped around one of Kai's and her breasts were pushing upon him. He watched the five even as he ordered his dinner.

On Kai's end of the restaurant, he was constantly praying for help. He glanced over to the table where his friends sat, but everyone didn't seem to care enough to help him.

'Those bastards'

"Hey, tell me your name" said the brown haired girl.

"Why should I?" Kai said in a clear piss-off-ed tone.

"Coz I already told you my name is Shigeru" she said. "Please"

"Hey, Kai just tell her your name already" Ruuka said, calling from his side of the restaurant.

"So, your name is Kai?" Shigeru said.

'I'll kill him one day' Kai thought angrily.

"You did that on purpose didn't you?" Rei asked his voice full of uncertainty. All Ruuka did was chuckle.

"That's a cool name" said the orange haired one. "I like it"

"Can I go please?" Kai asked, trying to get out of Shigeru's hold.

"Why the rush?" Shigeru asked, pressing her boobs more onto Kai's arm. The feeling was making Kai nauseous.

Kai glance to the other's table, only Rei was looking his way. Kai mouthed out "Help me" but at that moment Alice said something that caught Rei's attention and he looked away.

"Why do you keep looking over there?" Alice asked. "Are you worried about him?"

"Just a little" Rei answered. "Maybe we should go help him"

"Leave him be, there's not much we could do" Ruuka said, scooping a spoonful of rice into his mouth.

"But those girls are making him uncomfortable" Rei said. "And just before it looked like he tried to say something"

"You sound jealous" Tala said, smirking.

"What?"

"You want those girls to back away from him, don't you?" Tala said. Rei looked over to Kai direction again, he certainly felt a disliking feeling, but was it really jealousy?

"…I"

"Ok, next time that chick grabs his arm again, if you get angry at her then you're jealous" Alice said, pointing at him with her chopsticks. Rei slowly turned back to the table of five and watched as Shigeru once again grabbed Kai's arm and squished her body onto him. Unexpectedly to him and predictably to everyone else around him, he found himself angry and he wanted those girls to back away from Kai.

"You understand now?" Alice asked at the face Rei made. "Sometimes you just seem so dense"

"…"

"So what do you want to do now?" Tala asked.

Rei stood up from the table and walked towards Kai and the girls.

"Wow he's a lot more bold than I thought" Akito said, watching the black haired boy.

"I wasn't actually expecting that" Alice said.

Rei got to the table without any problems, but felt like he lost his nerve half-way.

'What am I doing? I feel so stupid' He thought.

"Rei!" Kai's voice broke him out his doubts. Shigeru had her breast practically out of her loose top and spread over Kai's arm. Hinata was acting like she wanted her panties to be seen.

"Oh, hi there cutie, did you want to join us?" the blonde one said. "There's a seat for one more"

"…No thanks, I don't even know what I'm doing any more" Rei said, walking away.

"Hey, Rei, wait up" Kai said, unable to get up from Shigeru's hold. "Don't leave me here"

"Aww, look he left"

"Let me go" Kai said, glaring at them.

"No way, let's stay together tonight"

"Just a min- Wah!" Kai stopped midsentence as he was grabbed by the arms and pulled out of the table and Shigeru's grasp. Rei tugged him along, red in the face, while Kai registered what happened.

"Th-thanks" Kai said, sighing in relief.

Rei couldn't answer he had no idea what had done. He walked out the door with Kai's hand firmly in his grasp, leaving the other group of seven inside.

"You ok?" Kai asked, he looked down at his hand that was still being held by Rei. He felt himself smile a bit. He squeezed it back gently. Rei instantly let it go.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't realise" Rei said looking down.

"No it's ok, thanks for saving me from those girls" Kai said, leaning on the wall of the restaurant. "Guess that means I can't go back to eat huh?"

"Oh yeah…" Rei remembered that Kai was the only one who didn't get to eat.

"Doesn't matter, I rather not go back in there" Kai said. Rei stood next to him, waiting for the others to finish their dinner. He looked up to the sky, it was filled with stars and the moon was bright. He felt Kai shift closer to him, feeling his body heat on his arm.

'I hope the others take their time in there' Rei thought, realising how nice it was to just be standing next to Kai, while looking up onto the sky.

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Nothing like writers block to make you realise how much of a crap writer you are. I'm sorry, I'm not experience with this type of thing as you can see…


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